Congressional members opposed to a Chinese bid to take over the California-based energy company Unocal built broader support on Thursday for their campaign to block the deal on grounds that it could threaten national and energy security in the US.
But China is not the first foreign country to seek energy assets owned by Americans. Indeed, oil industry analysts say that the effort by the China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) to outbid Chevron for Unocal appears to pose probably even less risk of generating domestic shortages or other energy-security headaches than other foreign acquisitions that have been approved by the government in the past.
For more than two decades the US has not blocked foreign acquisitions of energy properties by Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Russia, France, Norway and Brazil, among others. Some of those deals, particularly Venezuela's purchase of Citgo, involve access to oil supplies vulnerable to disruption because they feed refineries and thousands of US gasoline stations.
By contrast, Unocal has few strategic oil assets in the US. The company, based in El Segundo, California, does not have refineries or gasoline stations, having sold them eight years ago.
"The assets involved in the Unocal transaction are not of the scale or geographic location to make them of critical importance to US energy security," said Amy Myers Jaffe, an energy fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy in Houston, Texas.
Still, the bid has prompted strong debate in Washington. On Thursday, Representative Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, a Democrat, won House passage of her amendment to the annual appropriations bill prohibiting the Treasury Department from recommending the sale of Unocal to CNOOC.
And Thursday night, the House approved, by a vote of 398-15, a resolution stating that Chinese ownership of Unocal would "threaten to impair the national security of the United States" and that approval by Unocal's board of the bid should result in a "thorough review" by President George W. Bush.
The resolution was presented by Representative Richard Pombo, a Republican, whose district includes Unocal's headquarters. In his resolution, Pombo cited concerns about oil exploration technologies that have "dual use" in commercial and military applications.
But Representative Jim Moran, a Republican, said that blocking the Chinese bid was a dangerous move.
"They are holding a financial guillotine over the neck of our economy, and they will drop that if we do things like this that are not well considered," Moran said on the House floor.
"If we don't let them invest in Western firms, what are they going to do? They are going to invest in Iran or Sudan and make those governments much stronger than they are today," he said.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors
‘NARWHAL’: The indigenous submarine completed its harbor acceptance test recently and is now under heavy guard as it undergoes tests in open waters, a source said The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, yesterday began sea trials, sailing out of the Port of Kaohsiung, a military source said. Also known as the “Narwhal,” the vessel departed from CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard at about 8am, where it had been docked. More than 10 technicians and military personnel were on deck, with several others standing atop the sail. After recently completing its harbor acceptance test, the vessel has started a series of sea-based trials, including tests of its propulsion and navigational systems, while partially surfaced, the source said. The Hai Kun underwent tests in the port from
MISSION: The Indo-Pacific region is ‘the priority theater,’ where the task of deterrence extends across the entire region, including Taiwan, the US Pacific Fleet commander said The US Navy’s “mission of deterrence” in the Indo-Pacific theater applies to Taiwan, Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Stephen Koehler told the South China Sea Conference on Tuesday. The conference, organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is an international platform for senior officials and experts from countries with security interests in the region. “The Pacific Fleet’s mission is to deter aggression across the Western Pacific, together with our allies and partners, and to prevail in combat if necessary, Koehler said in the event’s keynote speech. “That mission of deterrence applies regionwide — including the South China Sea and Taiwan,” he
RSS