Post by jeffolie on Jul 27, 2012 11:07:24 GMT -6
US to be #1 oil producer in the world again, World buys up US's oil companies and drilling rights
Why The World Is Coming For America's Oil
Below the 3 pieces show China, Norway recently each spent $20B to buy US oil companies and drilling rights.
"... by the 2020s the capital of energy will likely have shifted back to the Western Hemisphere, where it was prior to the ascendancy of Middle Eastern mega-suppliers such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in the 1960s. .."
=============================
July 27, 2012
China flexes muscles with Cnooc, Nexen deal
$15.1 billion deal one of many to greatly impact global oil, natgasStories You Might Like
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — When Cnooc Ltd. scored a deal to acquire Canada’s Nexen Inc., it was one big leap for China’s largest offshore oil and natural gas producer, and one small step toward building a global empire to feed the Asian nation’s voracious appetite for energy.
“China realizes that access to energy is power,” said Phil Flynn, a senior energy analyst for Price Futures Group — and Canada just might be the “new Middle East” as oil sands there, with new technology, may hold as much oil as Saudi Arabia.
China National Offshore Oil Corp.’s Cnooc Ltd. CEO +1.39% +2.83% announced on Monday an agreement to acquire Nexen CA:NXY -0.23% NXY +0.16% , an oil and natural gas firm developing energy resources around the world, for US$15.1 billion in cash. Read more about the Cnooc, Nexen deal.
Cnooc to buy Nexen for $15.1 billion China's Cnooc unveiled what would be Beijing's biggest move yet to acquire a foreign company, with a $15.1 billion pact to acquire Canada's Nexen. Liam Denning discusses on Markets Hub. Photo: Bloomberg.
At more than $18 billion, including debt, the deal would be the biggest cross-border acquisition by a Chinese company on record, if completed, according to Dealogic. It would also be the 15th-largest oil and gas merger and acquisition deal on record.
It would be the largest energy deal yet by a Chinese company, “but is by no means the first of its kind; it is just falling in line with a trend we have seen developing over the past few years,” said Matt Smith, an analyst with Summit Energy in Louisville, Kentucky.
China’s looking to obtain “a certain level of energy security going forward,” he said, and it is investing in North America because the region has “led the way globally in terms of technology and innovation for the energy industry.”
It likely plans to “learn these skills and take them back home,” he said.
“China’s appetite for commodities is somewhat insatiable, and this will likely only continue over the coming decades as it ramps up consumption of natural gas and becomes the largest oil-consuming nation,” said Smith.
And that will certainly have repercussions for the energy industry worldwide, energy analysts said.
Strategic buy
China has been building up its overseas acquisitions over the last four years on a gargantuan scale.
China’s appetite for acquisitions increased after the global meltdown in 2007-2008, and with its stomach gurgling, “it threw its head to and fro looking for prey,” said Seth Rabinowitz, who covers commodities as a partner at Silicon Associates.
Chinese companies have announced 1,418 overseas acquisitions valued at a total of around $235 billion since 2008, according to Dealogic.
The Cnooc news came the same day state-backed Chinese firm China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., aka Sinopec HK:338 -0.49% , said it agreed to acquire a 49% stake in U.K. North Sea assets owned by Canada’s Talisman Energy Inc. CA:TLM +3.58% TLM +4.21% . If both deals are completed, the Chinese companies would have about an 11% share of the U.K.’s oil and gas production. Read about the impact on Brent crude.
“China seeks resources wherever and from whomever it can strike a deal,” said Byron King, editor of investment newsletter Outstanding Investments. Oil, liquified natural gas, copper, rare earths, technology metals — “China needs it all.”
China is the world’s third-largest oil consumer, after the U.S. and European Union, and fifth-biggest natural gas consumer, based on 2011 estimates from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s World FactBook.
China’s trend of overseas acquisitions is set to continue, “as China sees it as necessary to accommodate its massive and growing domestic energy needs,” said Rabinowitz.
“While the reality is Nexen is small potatoes globally, China is making a strategic buy with this because it opens up what’s been elusive to China thus far — the Gulf of Mexico.”
Cnooc’s deal also follows the “Chinese pattern of acquiring technology with the assets,” said James Williams, an energy economist at WTRG Economics.
“Nexen has expertise in offshore drilling, oil sands, mining in-situ bitumen production and shale gas,” he said. “Strategically, it increases China’s presence in South America, the Middle East (Yemen), North Sea, South America, and West Africa as well as Canada and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.”
www.marketwatch.com/story/china-flexes-muscles-with-cnooc-nexen-deal-2012-07-27?link=home_carousel
=====================
Cnooc Hired U.S. Lobbyists Prior to Nexen Announcement
Jul 26, 2012
Chinese energy giant Cnooc Ltd. (883), whose efforts to buy a U.S. oil company in 2005 sparked an outcry over foreign ownership, hired two Washington lobbying firms just before announcing its plan to buy Nexen Inc. (NXY)
Cnooc, owned by the Chinese government and based in Beijing, agreed July 23 to pay $15.1 billion for Nexen, a Calgary-based company that operates in the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Mexico. It is Cnooc’s biggest North American deal since it walked away from Unocal Corp. under congressional pressure and the largest overseas acquisition by a Chinese company.
Cnooc, China’s largest offshore oil and gas explorer, hadn’t paid a firm to lobby Congress since its 2005 attempt to buy Unocal, according to public records. Unocal was eventually bought by San Ramon, California-based Chevron Corp. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg
.
If approved, the Nexen takeover would mark the first time a Chinese company would be the operator of leases in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, instead of a minority stakeholder. Nexen now operates 90 leases in the Gulf, where it’s the 29th-largest oil producer and 42nd-largest gas producer, according to the most recent operator ranking by the Interior Department from July 16.
The purchase of U.S. assets by foreign companies can be blocked on national security grounds.
Cnooc’s takeover of Nexen will probably be reviewed more closely than other international deals, Iain McPhie, a lawyer at Squire Sanders LLP in Washington, said in an interview. “The Chinese just raise strategic issues that an acquirer from the United Kingdom and France don’t raise,” said McPhie, who’s not involved in this transaction.
www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-27/cnooc-hired-u-s-lobbyists-prior-to-nexen-announcement.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
7/18/2012
Why The World Is Coming For America's Oil
".... Statoil (which is publicly traded, though 67% of its shares are owned by the government of Norway) is the fifth-largest acreage holder in the Gulf and plans to drill three deepwater wells here this year. But there’s an even bigger reason for the p.r. push: Statoil has more than $20 billion worth of oil and gas assets in the U.S. and has bet still more that drilling into America is the company’s best bet for growth.
Statoil CEO Helge Lund has big plans to increase its output from a current 2.1 million barrels per day to more than 2.5 million by 2020. The U.S. will be the biggest driver of that growth, with production here more than tripling from 150,000 barrels per day today to 500,000. That Lund has chosen to invest this much in the U.S. speaks volumes both about America’s oil and gas future and the state of the industry in the rest of the world.
"... “There can be no doubt that America is in the midst of an energy renaissance,” says global energy guru Joseph Stanislaw, who now works with Deloitte. Soaring oil output from the Bakken Shale fields, coupled with increased deepwater output primarily from the Gulf of Mexico, has pushed up U.S. domestic oil production by 12% since 2008. This is the first increase in a quarter-century and has confounded predictions that domestic output was set on an inexorable downtrend.
America’s potential oil and gas growth is so great, predicts professor Amy Myers Jaffe of Rice University’s Baker Institute, that by the 2020s the capital of energy will likely have shifted back to the Western Hemisphere, where it was prior to the ascendancy of Middle Eastern mega-suppliers such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in the 1960s. Statoil isn’t the only national oil company horning in. After failing to land Unocal in 2005 amid political contretemps, China’s Cnooc has put up $2 billion for joint ventures with Chesapeake Energy and another $2.1 billion to dig into Canada’s oil sands. Sinopec has done a $2.5 billion shale JV with Devon Energy and bought Canada’s Daylight..."
www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2012/07/18/why-the-world-is-now-coming-to-america-for-oil/
Why The World Is Coming For America's Oil
Below the 3 pieces show China, Norway recently each spent $20B to buy US oil companies and drilling rights.
"... by the 2020s the capital of energy will likely have shifted back to the Western Hemisphere, where it was prior to the ascendancy of Middle Eastern mega-suppliers such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in the 1960s. .."
=============================
July 27, 2012
China flexes muscles with Cnooc, Nexen deal
$15.1 billion deal one of many to greatly impact global oil, natgasStories You Might Like
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — When Cnooc Ltd. scored a deal to acquire Canada’s Nexen Inc., it was one big leap for China’s largest offshore oil and natural gas producer, and one small step toward building a global empire to feed the Asian nation’s voracious appetite for energy.
“China realizes that access to energy is power,” said Phil Flynn, a senior energy analyst for Price Futures Group — and Canada just might be the “new Middle East” as oil sands there, with new technology, may hold as much oil as Saudi Arabia.
China National Offshore Oil Corp.’s Cnooc Ltd. CEO +1.39% +2.83% announced on Monday an agreement to acquire Nexen CA:NXY -0.23% NXY +0.16% , an oil and natural gas firm developing energy resources around the world, for US$15.1 billion in cash. Read more about the Cnooc, Nexen deal.
Cnooc to buy Nexen for $15.1 billion China's Cnooc unveiled what would be Beijing's biggest move yet to acquire a foreign company, with a $15.1 billion pact to acquire Canada's Nexen. Liam Denning discusses on Markets Hub. Photo: Bloomberg.
At more than $18 billion, including debt, the deal would be the biggest cross-border acquisition by a Chinese company on record, if completed, according to Dealogic. It would also be the 15th-largest oil and gas merger and acquisition deal on record.
It would be the largest energy deal yet by a Chinese company, “but is by no means the first of its kind; it is just falling in line with a trend we have seen developing over the past few years,” said Matt Smith, an analyst with Summit Energy in Louisville, Kentucky.
China’s looking to obtain “a certain level of energy security going forward,” he said, and it is investing in North America because the region has “led the way globally in terms of technology and innovation for the energy industry.”
It likely plans to “learn these skills and take them back home,” he said.
“China’s appetite for commodities is somewhat insatiable, and this will likely only continue over the coming decades as it ramps up consumption of natural gas and becomes the largest oil-consuming nation,” said Smith.
And that will certainly have repercussions for the energy industry worldwide, energy analysts said.
Strategic buy
China has been building up its overseas acquisitions over the last four years on a gargantuan scale.
China’s appetite for acquisitions increased after the global meltdown in 2007-2008, and with its stomach gurgling, “it threw its head to and fro looking for prey,” said Seth Rabinowitz, who covers commodities as a partner at Silicon Associates.
Chinese companies have announced 1,418 overseas acquisitions valued at a total of around $235 billion since 2008, according to Dealogic.
The Cnooc news came the same day state-backed Chinese firm China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., aka Sinopec HK:338 -0.49% , said it agreed to acquire a 49% stake in U.K. North Sea assets owned by Canada’s Talisman Energy Inc. CA:TLM +3.58% TLM +4.21% . If both deals are completed, the Chinese companies would have about an 11% share of the U.K.’s oil and gas production. Read about the impact on Brent crude.
“China seeks resources wherever and from whomever it can strike a deal,” said Byron King, editor of investment newsletter Outstanding Investments. Oil, liquified natural gas, copper, rare earths, technology metals — “China needs it all.”
China is the world’s third-largest oil consumer, after the U.S. and European Union, and fifth-biggest natural gas consumer, based on 2011 estimates from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s World FactBook.
China’s trend of overseas acquisitions is set to continue, “as China sees it as necessary to accommodate its massive and growing domestic energy needs,” said Rabinowitz.
“While the reality is Nexen is small potatoes globally, China is making a strategic buy with this because it opens up what’s been elusive to China thus far — the Gulf of Mexico.”
Cnooc’s deal also follows the “Chinese pattern of acquiring technology with the assets,” said James Williams, an energy economist at WTRG Economics.
“Nexen has expertise in offshore drilling, oil sands, mining in-situ bitumen production and shale gas,” he said. “Strategically, it increases China’s presence in South America, the Middle East (Yemen), North Sea, South America, and West Africa as well as Canada and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.”
www.marketwatch.com/story/china-flexes-muscles-with-cnooc-nexen-deal-2012-07-27?link=home_carousel
=====================
Cnooc Hired U.S. Lobbyists Prior to Nexen Announcement
Jul 26, 2012
Chinese energy giant Cnooc Ltd. (883), whose efforts to buy a U.S. oil company in 2005 sparked an outcry over foreign ownership, hired two Washington lobbying firms just before announcing its plan to buy Nexen Inc. (NXY)
Cnooc, owned by the Chinese government and based in Beijing, agreed July 23 to pay $15.1 billion for Nexen, a Calgary-based company that operates in the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Mexico. It is Cnooc’s biggest North American deal since it walked away from Unocal Corp. under congressional pressure and the largest overseas acquisition by a Chinese company.
Cnooc, China’s largest offshore oil and gas explorer, hadn’t paid a firm to lobby Congress since its 2005 attempt to buy Unocal, according to public records. Unocal was eventually bought by San Ramon, California-based Chevron Corp. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg
.
If approved, the Nexen takeover would mark the first time a Chinese company would be the operator of leases in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, instead of a minority stakeholder. Nexen now operates 90 leases in the Gulf, where it’s the 29th-largest oil producer and 42nd-largest gas producer, according to the most recent operator ranking by the Interior Department from July 16.
The purchase of U.S. assets by foreign companies can be blocked on national security grounds.
Cnooc’s takeover of Nexen will probably be reviewed more closely than other international deals, Iain McPhie, a lawyer at Squire Sanders LLP in Washington, said in an interview. “The Chinese just raise strategic issues that an acquirer from the United Kingdom and France don’t raise,” said McPhie, who’s not involved in this transaction.
www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-27/cnooc-hired-u-s-lobbyists-prior-to-nexen-announcement.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
7/18/2012
Why The World Is Coming For America's Oil
".... Statoil (which is publicly traded, though 67% of its shares are owned by the government of Norway) is the fifth-largest acreage holder in the Gulf and plans to drill three deepwater wells here this year. But there’s an even bigger reason for the p.r. push: Statoil has more than $20 billion worth of oil and gas assets in the U.S. and has bet still more that drilling into America is the company’s best bet for growth.
Statoil CEO Helge Lund has big plans to increase its output from a current 2.1 million barrels per day to more than 2.5 million by 2020. The U.S. will be the biggest driver of that growth, with production here more than tripling from 150,000 barrels per day today to 500,000. That Lund has chosen to invest this much in the U.S. speaks volumes both about America’s oil and gas future and the state of the industry in the rest of the world.
"... “There can be no doubt that America is in the midst of an energy renaissance,” says global energy guru Joseph Stanislaw, who now works with Deloitte. Soaring oil output from the Bakken Shale fields, coupled with increased deepwater output primarily from the Gulf of Mexico, has pushed up U.S. domestic oil production by 12% since 2008. This is the first increase in a quarter-century and has confounded predictions that domestic output was set on an inexorable downtrend.
America’s potential oil and gas growth is so great, predicts professor Amy Myers Jaffe of Rice University’s Baker Institute, that by the 2020s the capital of energy will likely have shifted back to the Western Hemisphere, where it was prior to the ascendancy of Middle Eastern mega-suppliers such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in the 1960s. Statoil isn’t the only national oil company horning in. After failing to land Unocal in 2005 amid political contretemps, China’s Cnooc has put up $2 billion for joint ventures with Chesapeake Energy and another $2.1 billion to dig into Canada’s oil sands. Sinopec has done a $2.5 billion shale JV with Devon Energy and bought Canada’s Daylight..."
www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2012/07/18/why-the-world-is-now-coming-to-america-for-oil/