Arrow Energy of Australia said Monday that it had received a takeover offer worth about $3 billion from a company owned by Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina, the state-run gas and oil giant.

The Queensland company, which produces natural gas from coal beds, called the offer of 3.3 billion Australian dollars “nonbinding” and “conditional,” and recommended that its shareholders wait before taking action.

Shell confirmed Monday that it was in talks to buy Arrow, with the exception of Arrow’s international business, in which Shell already holds a small stake.

Through a jointly owned company, Shell and PetroChina are offering 4.45 Australian dollars per Arrow share, as well as one share in a new company that would be made up of Arrow’s international operations, Arrow said.

Arrow shares were at 3.48 Australian dollars on Friday, but started trading above the bid Monday in Sydney and rose 1.63 dollars, or 46.8 percent, to 5.11 dollars, suggesting that the market expects the final offer to be higher.

As early as last summer, Arrow had to respond to rumors that it was targeted by Chinese interests and was discussing a potential takeover. In an August filing with the Australian Securities Exchange, it said it was in “discussions with parties with respect to the potential monetization options for its considerable coal seam gas resources,” and cited a “potential change of control.”

This would be PetroChina’s first stake in the coalbed methane sector in Australia, an industry that has attracted huge investments in recent years from firms like ConocoPhillips, BG Group of Britain and Shell itself, which already owns part of Arrow’s coalbed grounds.

Beijing has had trouble with previous deals in Australia, which may explain the collaboration with Shell. In the last few months, talks collapsed between PetroChina and Woodside Petroleum over a deal for the Chinese company to buy up to $40 billion in liquefied natural gas, and last summer, Rio Tinto abandoned a deal worth almost $20 billion with Chinalco, which was seeking access to its copper and iron ore.

The Rio Tinto deal showed how sensitive Australians could be to ceding too much control of their natural resources to Chinese state-run firms. The conservative opposition turned it into a cause célèbre, claiming in a television campaign that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who speaks Mandarin fluently, was bearing “gifts to the Chinese military regime by allowing control of strategic mineral resources in Australia.”

In Australia, the Foreign Investment Review Board examines all major acquisitions by foreign companies, and advises the government on whether they conform to its investment policy.

Arrow said Citigroup and UBS were acting as its financial advisers for the talks.