Chinese firms Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina jointly bid more than $3 billion for Australia's Arrow Energy, which makes it the first ever Chinese firm to venture in the country's growing coal-seam gas sector.

Coal-seam gas is methane which is stored in the molecular structures of coal seams, contrary to which natural gas is stored between rocks. Hence, coal seams tend to contain more gas than is found in gas reservoirs.

A coal-seam gas developer in New South Wales, named Eastern Star, rose 13 percent to close at 81 Australian cents.

Chris Weston, an institutional dealer at IG Markets in Melbourne said, "Both Eastern Star and Arrow Energy are in the coal-seam gas space, so whenever there's a takeover of one company, people will suggest that the other one's next off the block. Oil Search is also leveraged in this space. Eastern Star in particular, with its "relatively good assets," and "attractive" price, may be seen as a potential target. We knew before Arrow that there'd be some consolidation in this space".

Weston also shared that Arrow's takeover will not materialize until more details regarding the contract are disclosed. He added that the Chinese company's taking part can also pose political obstacles to the deal.