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Chinese giant to buy US oil assets: company (Norwegian energy group Statoil)
AFP on Yahoo ^ | 11/4/09 | Pierre-Henry Deshayes

Posted on 11/04/2009 8:49:53 AM PST by NormsRevenge

OSLO (AFP) – Norwegian energy group Statoil said Wednesday it was selling some of its US offshore oil assets to China's state-owned CNOOC, marking the first step by a Chinese energy major into the US market.

The sale, announced along with Statoil's quarterly results, involves a limited stake for the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) in four exploitation licences for deepwater blocks bought in 2007 and 2008.

"On 29 October Statoil signed a farm down agreement with the Chinese company CNOOC involving a number of Statoil's leases in the Gulf of Mexico," Statoil said in its third-quarter earnings statement.

Statoil, which is 67 percent state-owned, declined to disclose the value of the transaction but spokesman Kai Nielsen told AFP that the size of the deal was "very small."

In 2005, CNOOC had to cancel an 18.5-billion-dollar (12.4-billion-euro) deal with US firm Unocal because the politics of a communist country buying key US assets proved too controversial for Capitol Hill.

"It came to signify the general struggle between the US and China," Kurt Barrow, a senior partner at energy consulting firm Purvin and Gertz in Singapore, told AFP at the time.

"CNOOC may have lost the battle but it will not give up the war," Barrow added, ..

The sale announced Wednesday took place in the context of a slowdown in offshore oil exploration caused by the global credit crunch, an environment in which "opposition to Chinese investment may be less likely," the Wall Street Journal said last month.

CNOOC will be acquiring 20 percent of the Tucker prospect and a 10-percent stake on the licences of the Krakatoa, Cobra and Logan blocks, while Statoil will remain the operator of all four blocks.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: chinese; cnooc; company; energy; gulfofmexico; healthcare; military; obama; offshoreoil; oil; oilassets; palin; statoil

1 posted on 11/04/2009 8:49:53 AM PST by NormsRevenge
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To: Jeff Head

fyi

Got Oil?


2 posted on 11/04/2009 8:57:50 AM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed .. Monthly Donor Onboard .. May yur bandwidth exceed your girth)
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Helge Lund, CEO of Norwegian energy group Statoil, speaks at a press conference in Oslo, November 4. Norwegian energy group Statoil said Wednesday it was selling some of its US offshore oil assets to China's state-owned CNOOC, marking the first step by a Chinese energy major into the US market. (AFP/Scanpix/Lise Aserud)


3 posted on 11/04/2009 9:01:36 AM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed .. Monthly Donor Onboard .. May yur bandwidth exceed your girth)
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To: NormsRevenge
There is no reason to permit the ChiComs to own any part of US Strategic Asset! But,but, but..... Obama doesn't care. He ALWAYS sides with the ChiComs and Muzzies before protecting the U.S. or U.S. interests!
4 posted on 11/04/2009 9:02:07 AM PST by WellyP
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To: NormsRevenge

This can’t be good....


5 posted on 11/04/2009 9:07:27 AM PST by Lucky9teen (America is at that awkward stage..2 late 2 work within the system, but 2 early 2 shoot the bastards)
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To: NormsRevenge
Let's see: we depend on Red China for financing our national debt, much of our manufacturing, and now we are going to let them produce oil from our own waters?

It is beyond foolishness to trust a belligerent, totalitarian state in such a manner.

6 posted on 11/04/2009 9:07:59 AM PST by snowsislander
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To: NormsRevenge

Howdy Norm!

I’m feeling very dense this morning. Can you possibly ‘splain this article? Are we selling US oil to Norway so they can sell it to China?

It’s mindnumbing.............

or maybe it’s just the foggy morning.


7 posted on 11/04/2009 9:10:27 AM PST by EggsAckley (There's an Ethiopian in the fuel supply. W.C. Fields)
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To: NormsRevenge
The Chinese may not speak english as their official language, but they do understand the words DRILL, DRILL, DRILL.

Since crude oil prices are affected by world wide supply and demand their activity could lower the price of gasoline in the US.

For those of us who drive everyday this can be a win win deal because the 0bama energy policy is out chasing green butterflies.

8 posted on 11/04/2009 9:13:36 AM PST by TYVets (Let's Roll!!! The leadership of the GOP has no spine and no guts, but we conservatives do)
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To: EggsAckley

They’re are selling oil tract leases is how I read it ..

It’s sunny here, supposed to cool down a bit and get wet soon too..


9 posted on 11/04/2009 9:24:20 AM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed .. Monthly Donor Onboard .. May yur bandwidth exceed your girth)
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To: snowsislander
Let's see: we depend on Red China for financing our national debt, much of our manufacturing, and now we are going to let them produce oil from our own waters?

What's next? Selling them huge tracts of Midwest farmland? Sheesh.

"The West: We're not just fools. We're fools with a deathwish!"
10 posted on 11/04/2009 9:29:29 AM PST by LearsFool ("Thou shouldst not have been old, till thou hadst been wise.")
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To: NormsRevenge

We’ve had gloriously sunny weather for about a week now. Today the gloomy fog moved in.


11 posted on 11/04/2009 9:38:12 AM PST by EggsAckley (There's an Ethiopian in the fuel supply. W.C. Fields)
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To: NormsRevenge

LukOil and Gazprom, the russian energy firms, already have a presense here in America. If my information is correct, the Rushkies own a partial share in BP as well.

The Chinese only want a piece of the action.


12 posted on 11/04/2009 9:46:08 AM PST by Thunder90 (Fighting for truth and the American way... http://citizensfortruthandtheamericanway.blogspot.com/)
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To: LearsFool

We would sell Midwestern farmland to the Russians so they can produce their own wheat...


13 posted on 11/04/2009 9:47:21 AM PST by Thunder90 (Fighting for truth and the American way... http://citizensfortruthandtheamericanway.blogspot.com/)
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To: NormsRevenge

Now we know why we aren’t allowed to drill for our own oil. Obama and congress sold it to other Countries.


14 posted on 11/04/2009 10:06:02 AM PST by Freddd (CNN is not credible.)
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To: EggsAckley
This doesn't look like any big deal to me in terms of national security. The oil that CNOOC produces in the Gulf of Mexico will almost certainly be sold to US refiners along the Gulf coast, simply because CNOOC will incur the lowest transportation costs for the oil by selling it to US refiners (just because the distance is shortest and they need to use Statoil's facilities in the Gulf.) So instead of shipping our oil to China, they're much more likely to take the money they make off this oil and buy oil from Saudi Arabia or possibly oil that US companies are producing offshore in Australia. That's because the shipping costs to China are lower from Saudi and Australia. The Chinese are good businessmen and go for maximum profit, which they'll make by selling oil to US refiners.

But I would bet this is also a way to get a few Chinese intelligence agents into the US energy industry to gather intel on our drilling technology and general information about events in places like Texas and Louisiana. So that activity has to be watched by the FBI along with all the other Chinese business people sending intel on America back to China (most of it not especially useful to China.)

15 posted on 11/04/2009 10:31:27 AM PST by your local physicist (If the Canadians and Brazilians can drill for oil off their Atlantic coast, why can't we?)
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To: NormsRevenge
Someone at Agence France-Presse needs to go to school on U.S. petroleum-industry language. We don't have "licenses" in the U.S. offshore, unless you are talking about Coast Guard licenses or Merchant Marine licenses or FCC licenses.

They mean, "leases".

Stupid Frogs.

16 posted on 11/04/2009 12:18:26 PM PST by lentulusgracchus
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