China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC, 中國石油天然氣) plans to “intensify” oil and gas acquisitions globally in the five years though 2015 to meet demand in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
China’s largest crude oil producer is looking for opportunities abroad, the parent of Hong Kong-listed PetroChina Co (中石油) said in a statement on its Web site yesterday.
Beijing-based China National didn’t specify the type of assets it is seeking or say which countries they are likely to be located.
China National agreed in May to buy a 35 percent stake in Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s Syrian oil and gas unit for US$1.6 billion, and PetroChina said this month it would form an oil refining and trading venture with the UK’s Ineos Group Holdings PLC.
Chinese companies bid for a record US$39.6 billion of energy assets abroad last year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
GLOBAL FIRM
“This ties in with the company’s intention to become a global oil company,” Shi Yan, an analyst at UOB-Kay Hian Ltd in Shanghai, said by telephone yesterday.
“The areas it’s looking at are mainly South America, Africa and the Middle East, developing countries, which are viewed as being less sensitive to China securing resources,” the analyst said.
PetroChina made US$6.9 billion of acquisitions in countries from Australia to Singapore in the past two years and has said it plans to spend at least US$60 billion to buy assets this decade.
Jiang Jiemin (蔣潔敏), president of China National and PetroChina’s chairman, said in March the unit would play a major role in overseas projects, while CNPC would handle operations in “politically more sensitive” areas.
Li Runsheng, an assistant to Jiang, didn’t answer calls to his office.
PetroChina spokesman Mao Zefeng didn’t answer calls to his office and mobile phones.
China National “needs to expand abroad rapidly because China’s oil demand is rising and will continue to do so in the years to come,” Shi said. “China’s own oil production is pretty much flat, so it has to look overseas.”
The International Energy Agency said on Tuesday that China’s oil consumption would increase 4.8 percent this year to 9.79 million barrels a day.
China’s domestic crude production rose 6.9 percent to 203.01 million tonnes last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. Output fell 0.4 percent to 189.49 million tonnes in 2009, according to the government agency.
IMPORTS
China could rely on imports for more than 60 percent of its oil consumption by 2015, compared with 50 percent in 2008, as domestic output growth lags behind demand, state-controlled China National said in a Jan. 11 statement.
PetroChina and Shell completed their joint acquisition of Australian gas producer Arrow Energy Ltd for US $3.2 billion in August.
The Chinese company won the Canadian government approval for its US$1.8 billion bid to buy a 60 percent stake in Athabasca Oil Sands Corp’s MacKay River and Dover oil-sands projects, its first North American acquisition, in December 2009.
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