PARIS, April 3 (Xinhua) -- France's largest oil and gas group Total and U.S. company Tellurian signed a series of agreements as part of partnership plan to develop the Driftwood LNG project located in Louisiana, the French group said on Wednesday.

The two partners have signed a non-binding heads of agreement (HOA), according to which Total will invest 500 million U.S. dollars in Driftwood Holdings and offtake 2.5 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of LNG.

Under the HOA, they will enter into a sales and purchase agreement (SPA) to take further 1.5 tonnes per annum of LNG from Tellurian Marketing's LNG offtake volumes from the Driftwood project for a minimum term of 15 years, Total said in a statement.

Following a second accord, Total will also buy about 20 million shares of Tellurian common stock for 200 million dollars.

"These agreements increase our commitment to Driftwood LNG, a highly cost-competitive project that benefits from the low gas production costs and prices in the U.S. In line with our strategy to become a major LNG portfolio player, this transaction will add 2.5 Mtpa of competitive U.S. LNG to Total's portfolio and strengthen our positions in the U.S.," said Patrick Pouyanne, Chairman and CEO of Total.

The agreements are subject to the relevant regulatory approvals and to the Final Investment Decision (FID) of the Driftwood LNG project.

In 2017, Total became a shareholder of Tellurian after it had acquired approximately 46 million shares of the U.S. company for 207 million U.S. dollars.