Beijing: CNOOC, China's biggest offshore oil explorer, plans to buy Argentina's Bridas Group from Carlos Bulgheroni for more than $3 billion (Dh11 billion), according to two people familiar with the discussions.
The transaction would give Beijing-based CNOOC a 40 per cent stake in Pan American Energy, a joint venture between Bridas and BP, said the people, who asked not to be identified before an announcement.
CNOOC said in an e-mailed statement that it would make an announcement on the matter later yesterday but did not elaborate.
A purchase by CNOOC would add to at least $13 billion of energy acquisitions by Chinese companies since December 2008 as the nation scours the globe for resources to feed the world's fastest-growing major economy.
CNOOC was earlier seeking to bid for a Devon Energy stake in an Azerbaijan oil field, said two people with knowledge of the matter in February. "Given China's increasing reliance on imported crude oil and the nation's robust demand in fuel driven by the rapid growth in automobile sales, it is a priority for the Chinese government and its companies to secure resources globally," said Wang Aochao, head of China energy research at UOB-Kay Hian.
CNOOC chairman Fu Chengyu said in an interview yesterday that there may be an announcement on foreign cooperation "very soon".
The company has made "good progress" since stepping up efforts to increase cooperation with foreign countries and companies in December 2008, Fu said.
"We are currently cooperating on many projects and the overall development is very good," Fu said in Beijing.
"We are looking at all the places globally that can generate opportunities."
A Pan American spokesman, who cannot be named, had declined to comment on Friday. Two calls to Bulgheroni's office on March 12 weren't returned.
Pan American Energy was formed in September 1997 through the merger of the Argentine units of Bridas and Amoco, which was acquired by BP in August 1998.
Pan American has since become Argentina's second-biggest producer of crude, behind the Argentine unit of Repsol, and was the country's largest exporter of oil in 2009.
