CNOOC Ltd (中國海洋石油), China’s biggest offshore energy explorer, and Sinochem Group (中國中化) may bid US$3 billion for a 40 percent stake in a Brazilian oil field owned by Norway’s Statoil ASA, two people with knowledge of the companies’ plans said.
The stake in the Peregrino field off the Brazilian coast may fetch between US$2.5 billion and US$3 billion, sources said asking not to be identified because of the confidential nature of the process. Statoil, Norway’s largest oil and gas producer has told potential buyers to tender an offer by today, they said.
REDUCE RISK
Statoil’s Chief Financial Officer Eldar Saetre said in November that the company was considering cutting its stake in Peregrino to reduce risk and accumulate funds for the development of other projects.
The Stavanger-based company, which has operations in 40 countries, took control of the oilfield in March 2008 after acquiring the remaining 50 percent from Anadarko Petroleum Corp.
Statoil is targetting crude oil output at Peregrino early next year when it will also start drilling wells. The field, 85km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, has an estimated 460 million barrels of recoverable oil, company spokeswoman Mari Dotterud said on Oct. 20.
Statoil, which has operating rights on about 80 percent of Norway’s oil and gas production, is expanding abroad to counter dwindling North Sea reserves. The company is 67 percent owned by the Norwegian government.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RESHAPING COMMERCE: Major industrialized economies accepted 15 percent duties on their products, while charges on items from Mexico, Canada and China are even bigger US President Donald Trump has unveiled a slew of new tariffs that boosted the average US rate on goods from across the world, forging ahead with his turbulent effort to reshape international commerce. The baseline rates for many trading partners remain unchanged at 10 percent from the duties Trump imposed in April, easing the worst fears of investors after the president had previously said they could double. Yet his move to raise tariffs on some Canadian goods to 35 percent threatens to inject fresh tensions into an already strained relationship, while nations such as Switzerland and New Zealand also saw increased