China's unquenchable thirst for oil

A refinery in Singapore. Oil and gas fields in Central Asia. A pipeline in Russia. Ultradeep crude deposits off Brazil. Production wells in Libya.

And now Toronto-listed Addax Petroleum Corp., AXC-T with its oil fields in western Africa and Iraq’s Kurdistan.

China’s cash-rich, state-controlled oil companies and its state development bank are on a buying spree, taking advantage of low crude prices and shrunken credit markets to snap up global assets that will help feed the country’s enormous appetite for energy.

The Chinese are the most aggressive deal makers in the international oil industry right now, either through straight acquisitions or through innovative loans to foreign oil companies with crude as the currency of repayment.

Globe and Mail