Nigeria handed a state-owned Chinese group licenses to explore four oil blocks on Friday, underlining Beijing's increasing drive for energy resources.
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) won an auction in Lagos for four of 17 blocks on offer, two located in the northeastern Lake Chad Basin and two in the restive southern Niger Delta, the country's main oil-producing region.
The rights in the Lake Chad basin blocks were sold for US$510,000 each, while the two in the Niger Delta were sold for US$5.01 million and US$10.01 million respectively.
Nigeria, which currently exports around 2.6 million barrels of oil per day, is Africa's largest oil producer and the world's sixth-largest exporter.
The deal followed a visit to Nigeria last month by Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), who concluded important bilateral agreements in trade, oil, technical assistance and health care.
In exchange for the drilling rights, China has agreed to invest US$2 billion in northern Nigeria's Kaduna refinery, officials said.
commitment
The top civil servant in Nigeria's oil ministry, Anthony Chukwueke, said the 11 companies qualified to take part in Friday's auction had "shown serious commitment to setting up strategic downstream [oil] projects in Nigeria."
CNPC vice president Huang Yu told reporters his company was pleased with its auction victory.
"We are very excited because of the transparency and fairness of the whole exercise. The success at the bidding has given us the opportunity to be part of Nigeria's massive oil sector," he said.
Huang added the company's foray into Nigeria's oil industry would expand its African network.
"We are in Sudan, Niger, Chad, Algeria, Mauritania and now Nigeria. This development will foster greater economic ties between our two countries. We look forward to winning more oil blocks in Nigeria," he said.
Chukwueke told reporters the bid winners have until June 6 to pay the outstanding amount due on their purchase, and said another auction would take place before the end of the year.
stronger ties
Hu's trip to Africa and the Middle East last month was seen as an opportunity to strengthen ties with oil-exporting countries at a time when Chinese oil demand and world energy prices are rising spectacularly.
The week before Hu's visit, China's offshore operator CNOOC confirmed that it had signed a US$2.7 billion deal to buy a 45 percent stake in another Nigerian oil block, the firm's largest-ever foreign investment.
Chinese oil consumption is expected to rise from 6.59 million barrels per day last year to 6.95 million this year as its once largely agrarian economy continues its rapid industrialization and more of its citizens buy cars.
India, which like China is avid for energy sources, is also represented in Nigeria through the partnership of Mittal Steel and the state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp.
The pair have their eyes on three oil blocks in exchange for a US$6 billion investment in a Nigerian refinery, a power station and a railway line.
Other bidders
Other firms selected to bid included Nigeria's Transnational Corporation, a local subsidiary of the Italian oil group Eni, and its Italian rival Agip in partnership with Lotus Energy.
Two Nigerian oil firms from the Niger Delta -- Clearwaters Consortium and Niger Delta United Limited -- were allocated operating production licences during the bidding exercise in a move designed to douse charges that wealth from the delta oil never benefited the region.
"These companies are being promoted by youth and opinion leaders from the Niger Delta. It is part of the government's initiative and measures to placate restiveness in the region," Chukwueke told reporters.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, booked its first-ever profit from its Arizona subsidiary in the first half of this year, four years after operations began, a company financial statement showed. Wholly owned by TSMC, the Arizona unit contributed NT$4.52 billion (US$150.1 million) in net profit, compared with a loss of NT$4.34 billion a year earlier, the statement showed. The company attributed the turnaround to strong market demand and high factory utilization. The Arizona unit counts Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc among its major customers. The firm’s first fab in Arizona began high-volume production
VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: The Japanese company is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence linchpins Nvidia Corp and TSMC Softbank Group Corp agreed to buy US$2 billion of Intel Corp stock, a surprise deal to shore up a struggling US name while boosting its own chip ambitions. The Japanese company, which is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence (AI) linchpins Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), is to pay US$23 a share — a small discount to Intel’s last close. Shares of the US chipmaker, which would issue new stock to Softbank, surged more than 5 percent in after-hours trading. Softbank’s stock fell as much as 5.4 percent on Tuesday in Tokyo, its
COLLABORATION: Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture would make AI data center equipment, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) would operate a US factory owned by Softbank Group Corp, setting up what is in the running to be the first manufacturing site in the Japanese company’s US$500 billion Stargate venture with OpenAI and Oracle Corp. Softbank is acquiring Hon Hai’s electric-vehicle plant in Ohio, but the Taiwanese company would continue to run the complex after turning it into an artificial intelligence (AI) server production plant, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said yesterday. Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture between the two companies would make AI data
DOLLAR SIGNS: The central bank rejected claims that the NT dollar had appreciated 10 percentage points more than the yen or the won against the greenback The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell for a sixth day to its weakest level in three months, driven by equity-related outflows and reactions to an economics official’s exchange rate remarks. The NT dollar slid NT$0.197, or 0.65 percent, to close at NT$30.505 per US dollar, central bank data showed. The local currency has depreciated 1.97 percent so far this month, ranking as the weakest performer among Asian currencies. Dealers attributed the retreat to foreign investors wiring capital gains and dividends abroad after taking profit in local shares. They also pointed to reports that Washington might consider taking equity stakes in chipmakers, including Taiwan Semiconductor
RSS