Da ya think that this deal will go through?
Fri 24 Jun 2005
Chinese oil giant in £10bn bid for US’s Unocal
CHINA’S third-biggest oil producer has made a £10.2 billion cash offer to buy US oil company Unocal, marking the communist nation’s most ambitious attempt yet to acquire a Western firm.
The move by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) also sets the scene for a bidding war for Unocal, with US group Chevron having also submitted a bid of about £9bn for the firm.
It comes amid a flurry of foreign oil and gas deals by China as its government, facing stagnant production at home, tries to secure energy abroad for its booming economy, already the world’s third-biggest oil importer behind Japan and the US.
Unocal, the ninth-biggest US oil company, said it would evaluate the CNOOC offer."
The Chinese are buying heavily into Canadian oil and mineral reserves, so who is next? I don’t think the above deal will go through because of “ahem” National Security reasons, Americans are already in a snit over the sale of Tar Sands companies in Canada to the Chinese, thinking that the Tar Sands are theirs.
MarkB