Chinese bid to build line makes waves

At first blush, the bid by Chinese oil company Sinopec to build a natural gas line from Alaska’s energy-rich North Slope may sound like a pipe dream.

Shortly after Sinopec, the China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., was identified as one of five bidders on the project Nov. 28, human rights groups decried its dealings with oppressive regimes. Alaska’s congressional delegation warned that a Sinopec-owned project could undermine U.S. energy security if Alaskan gas went to China instead of U.S. consumers.


But others say Sinopec may be the strongest in a field of applicants that fell short of expectations and that a Chinese-sponsored pipeline may not be the threat some envision.

Citgo, which owns five U.S. refineries, is controlled by the government of U.S. antagonist Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, but those operations are not considered security threats, said Amy Myers Jaffe of Rice University’s James A. Baker Institute for Public Policy.

“Having someone own a strategic asset inside your country is not really as risky as them owning an asset you rely on in another country,” Jaffe said.

Houston Chronicle