Little Action for China's Oil Deals

Advising Cnooc on mergers and acquisitions can’t be the easiest job in the world, but the air-mile tally must be terrific.

A month ago, reports emerged that the Chinese state-owned oil major was sniffing around stakes in Nigerian oil fields. Then it was said to be competing with ExxonMobil for a stake in a big field off Ghana. Now the company is said to be in talks with Norway’s StatoilHydro about a deal in the Gulf of Mexico.

It might sound as if Cnooc is busy vacuuming up the world’s oil reserves. But neither the Nigerian nor Ghanaian situations look particularly promising for it. The Statoil deal is just talk for now. Another deal involving Cnooc, to buy Marathon Oil’s stake in an Angolan field, appears to have been stymied by Sonangol, Angola’s own national oil company (NOC).

Indeed, for all the talk and Western uneasiness, actual deal activity by China’s oil majors remains surprisingly low. Neil Beveridge at Sanford Bernstein reckons Chinese and Indian NOCs have accounted for less than 5% of global energy mergers and acquisitions over the past five years.

Rigzone