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.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS