Australia's natural gas assets are being targeted by China's national oil companies this year, according to energy consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie.

Chinese-owned oil companies led PetroChina Co is seen acquiring available gas supply from Australia projects, England -based Wood Mackenzie, a consultant on the energy industry said in a report.

PetroChina Company is now awash with cash amounting to $40 billion and is on the lookout for fresh acquisitions this year, said the energy consultant in its note provided clients.

PetroChina could be looking at buying an equity or product uptake from Australian firms engaged in renewable energy production.

A related Bloomberg report said that China's energy companies that are still on the lookout for acquisitions include Cnooc Ltd, China Petroleum&Chemical Corp, and PetroChina spent some $45 billion on 60 energy offtake agreements and other similar ventures in 2010. It further said that China Petroleum or Sinopec made the largest acquisition spending $12.29 billion last year.