Chinese oil and gas giant, CNOOC, is allegedly planning a $13 billion bid for the U.S. company, Unocal according to a Financial Times report.
The company may be seeking foreign solutions to their fuel output problems at home.
Some don’t see a $13 billion bid for the company as realistic. Gordon Kwan, the director of China oil and gas at Hong Kong’s Credit Lyonnais SA had this to say, “Paying $13 billion for Unocal is too expensive CNOOC’s market cap is only $21 billion. We speculate CNOOC is more likely to purchase individual projects in Asia from Unocal.”
Unocal who already has a strong Asian presence, is rumored to not be the only company CNOOC has its eye on. A BBC News article suggests that Shell’s share of Australia’s Woodside may be another possible point of interest.
An article from Bloomberg.com says:
“China, which relies on coal and oil for 90 percent of its fuel needs, wants gas to account for 8 percent of its energy supply by 2010 from about 3 percent. CNOOC’s parent China National Offshore Oil Corp. is building China’s first LNG import terminal in Guangdong, to start operations by the end of 2005, and in Fujian. It’s planning more terminals in Shanghai, Zhejiang and Tianjin.
Selling Unocal’s non-Asian assets after acquiring the whole company may boost CNOOC’s proved oil reserves by 28 percent and its natural gas reserves by 111 percent, Lawrence Lau, an oil and gas analyst with BOC International, said in a research report today”
Murdok | Breaking eBusiness News
Your source for investigative ebusiness reporting and breaking news.
