China’s Oil Giant CNPC Looking for Acquisition Targets Overseas

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and its listed company PetroChina are looking to buy oil and gas exploration and production assets and LNG opportunities globally in what could be a revival of deal-making for the Chinese state giant after two decades.

CNPC could seek to expand its current investments in LNG in Qatar, one of the world’s biggest LNG exporters, Lu Ruquan, director of the Chinese firm’s Economics and Technology Research Institute (ETRI) who is involved in strategy discussions, told Reuters on Tuesday.

CNPC already has an agreement for a 27-year LNG supply deal from state company QatarEnergy and a 5% stake in one of the trains of the massive North Field expansion project in Qatar.

The Chinese state energy firm is also looking for opportunities to acquire deepwater acreage in South America near the giant oil discoveries offshore Guyana, Lu told Reuters.

Exxon has announced in recent years massive oil discoveries offshore Guyana in a consortium comprising another Chinese state operator, CNOOC.

Earlier this year, ExxonMobil – which currently pumps in a consortium with U.S. Hess Corporation and CNOOC of China all the crude oil that Guyana produces – announced that it plans to develop a seventh offshore oil project on the prolific Stabroek block. Guyana expects to receive the development plan for Exxon’s seventh oil project offshore the South American country early next year, Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat said earlier this month.

CNPC and PetroChina now plan to extract more oil from aging fields and face complex geopolitical realities with sanctions on Russia, Iran, and Venezuela.

According to Lu, CNPC could be faced with the highest geopolitical hurdles since it first invested outside China in the early 1990s.

CNPC and PetroChina’s international buying spree continued until the early 2000s. During that timeframe, PetroChina bought Devon Energy’s business in Indonesia, as well as assets in Kazakhstan.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com

• Oil Prices Soar as Geopolitical Risk Rises Rapidly
• Russia's Sanctioned Vessels Still Working the Global Oil Market
• ExxonMobil: Oil Demand Will be Over 100 Million Bpd in 2050