Capt Bringdown
08-17-2012, 03:28 AM
Backed by a massive trade surplus and bulging overseas currency reserves, and fuelled by a voracious appetite for commodities, China has launched one of its largest foreign takeover bids to date, aiming to control a Canadian oil giant.
China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) wants to buy Calgary-based Nexen for $15.1bn, a premium 60 per cent above the company's listed value, in a deal analysts say Canadian regulators are likely to approve, despite opposition from some US politicians.
With 175 billion barrels of recoverable crude, Canada has the world's third largest proven oil reserves, behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, according to the CIA. Producing oil from Canada's tar sands requires an oil price of more than $50 per barrel to be profitable, according to Shell and other energy companies.
Extracting one barrel of oil from the tar sands produces three times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional crude, leading conservationists to oppose the China takeover plan, as it is likely to mean increased production and investment in one of the world's most environmentally harmful fuel sources.
Over the longer term, some analysts believe Beijing is eyeing Nexen's deep water drilling technology in order to cement its claims to prospective offshore oil deposits in the disputed South China Sea.
The region could contain as much as 213 billion barrels of oil, according to Chinese studies, making it a geopolitical prize comparable with Saudi Arabia. Most of this potential for oil is deep under water.
Canada and the US are some of the only places where foreign firms can directly buy upstream petroleum access.
"There are lots of state owned companies operating in the tar sands," Laxer said. "None of them are Canadian." If anything, the power of Chinese state capitalism should give Canadian policy makers pause in how they govern their own oil sector, where critics say finite and highly polluting resources are not managed for the public good.
-- more --> (http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/07/201272814252754222.html)
China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) wants to buy Calgary-based Nexen for $15.1bn, a premium 60 per cent above the company's listed value, in a deal analysts say Canadian regulators are likely to approve, despite opposition from some US politicians.
With 175 billion barrels of recoverable crude, Canada has the world's third largest proven oil reserves, behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, according to the CIA. Producing oil from Canada's tar sands requires an oil price of more than $50 per barrel to be profitable, according to Shell and other energy companies.
Extracting one barrel of oil from the tar sands produces three times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional crude, leading conservationists to oppose the China takeover plan, as it is likely to mean increased production and investment in one of the world's most environmentally harmful fuel sources.
Over the longer term, some analysts believe Beijing is eyeing Nexen's deep water drilling technology in order to cement its claims to prospective offshore oil deposits in the disputed South China Sea.
The region could contain as much as 213 billion barrels of oil, according to Chinese studies, making it a geopolitical prize comparable with Saudi Arabia. Most of this potential for oil is deep under water.
Canada and the US are some of the only places where foreign firms can directly buy upstream petroleum access.
"There are lots of state owned companies operating in the tar sands," Laxer said. "None of them are Canadian." If anything, the power of Chinese state capitalism should give Canadian policy makers pause in how they govern their own oil sector, where critics say finite and highly polluting resources are not managed for the public good.
-- more --> (http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/07/201272814252754222.html)