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The Chinese government is in a massive resource grab in Africa, which has huge ramifications for natural resource prices, not the least of which will be the cost of imported oil to the U.S., and ultimately the stock market and economy. Beijing's latest foray is trying to buy 6 billion barrels of oil that is already spoken for via leases to Exxon, Chevron , Royal Dutch Shell, and Total SA. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. presently leases 16 oil blocks on what remains of the oil industry's dominant Seven Sisters. It's a monster development, and a dramatic signal of how...

PetroChina is unloading the first Chinese purchase of crude oil from US strategic petroleum reserves at a port in eastern China. Supertanker Cosrising Lake, is unloading the US oil at Qingdao port in Shandong province this week, The crude according to the US Department of Energy, is similar in quality to Middle East Oman crude. More Asian refiners are turning to the Americas for oil after OPEC cuts tightened heavy crude supplies and as governments respond to a call from United States President Donald Trump to buy US oil and gas. State-owned PetroChina is one of the key players moving...

PetroChina just surpassed Exxon Mobil to become the largest energy company in the world, on a market cap basis. PetroChina was able to accomplish this despite Exxon’s growth of 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) in reserves. These new reserves are located at the Permian Basin in West Texas and the Kearl Oil Sands project in Canada. PetroChina’s primary operations are located in China. This may not seem like a major oil hub to the average investor, but China is actually the 5th largest oil producing country in the world. Now the question becomes: can PetroChina retain its status...

It was an easy story to miss. On Feb. 22, the Beijing newspaper China Business Herald, citing an anonymous source, reported that PetroChina International Vice President Shen Dingcheng had been missing for weeks. As a single point of data, the story means little. But the disappearance of Shen (which dozens of other Chinese news outlets covered) is likely another piece of the still unfolding and maddeningly opaque saga of Zhou Yongkang. Shen, it turns out, served as Zhou's secretary for part of the 1990s. Formerly one of the most powerful men in China, Zhou ran China's state security apparatus as...

A big shift is happening in Big Oil: an American giant now ranks behind a Chinese upstart. Exxon Mobil is no longer the world's biggest publicly traded producer of oil. For the first time, that distinction belongs to a 13-year-old Chinese company called PetroChina. The Beijing company was created by the Chinese government to secure more oil for that nation's booming economy. PetroChina announced Thursday that it pumped 2.4 million barrels a day last year, surpassing Exxon by 100,000. The company has grown rapidly over the last decade by squeezing more from China's aging oil fields and outspending Western companies...

CALGARY -- China has used its significant financial firepower to once again wiggle its way into Canada's oil sands, home to the largest source of crude outside Saudi Arabia. PetroChina International Investment Company Ltd. has struck a deal to buy a 60% working interest in Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.'s MacKay River and Dover oil sands projects for $1.9-billion, as well as "certain financing arrangements" for AOSC. "Oil sands projects are very capital-intensive long-term investments and difficult to fully finance in the traditional equity market," said Bill Gallacher, AOSC's chairman said in a statement. "AOSC therefore decided to look for joint...

CALGARY - Canada will apply existing foreign ownership laws to PetroChina’s bid to buy Canadian oilsands assets but will not introduce further barriers to investing in the country, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday. PetroChina, the world’s most valuable oil company, is set to pay $1.9 billion for a 60 per cent stake in two planned Canadian oilsands projects. It’s the biggest Chinese investment yet in Canada’s oilsands, which have reserves second only to Saudi Arabia, and a test of the Canadian government’s bid to thaw once-frosty relations with Beijing. Harper said he recognized that PetroChina’s plans were controversial, but...

Energy: We balk at importing "dirty" oil from Canada, but others aren't so reluctant. Exempt as a "developing" nation from Kyoto-like agreements, China has decided to help Canada develop its energy-rich oil sands.The Financial Post reports that PetroChina International Investment Co. has struck a deal to buy a 60% interest in Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.'s McKay River and Dover projects for $1.9 billion. China has been establishing energy beachheads around the world in its quest to keep its growing economy fueled. With possible conflict brewing between Israel and Iran, Beijing recognizes the need for reliable suppliers like Canada in an...

Protest launched over US state department nominee By Greg Farrell and Francesco Guerrera in New York and Daniel Dombey in Washington Published: July 23 2009 01:35 | Last updated: July 23 2009 01:35 An advocacy group on Wednesday launched a campaign to derail the nomination of a Goldman Sachs executive to a high position in the US state department because of his past role in raising public funds for a Chinese company linked to Sudan. Public Accountability Initiative, a not-for-profit organisation, said Robert Hormats, whom Barack Obama nominated this week as undersecretary of state for economic affairs, had made misleading...

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived in China for a visit. Strange as it may seem, there can be hardly any information found about the visit, which takes place on May 18-20. It brings up the idea that South America is working on an alliance with Asia’s largest states. It is not ruled out that China may eventually strengthen its influence near the borders of the United States and even set up Chinese army bases in the region. Brazil, the largest country of Latin America, suffered political and economic cataclysms during the 1990s just like the USSR. The...

China's benchmark stock index tumbles 5.4 percent on declines in PetroChina AP - 56 minutes ago SHANGHAI, China - China's benchmark stock index tumbled 5.4 percent Thursday to its lowest level in 11 months, dragged down by dramatic declines in PetroChina and other large cap stocks. The main Shanghai Composite Index fell 195.36 points to close at 3,411.49 points, its lowest finish since April 9. The benchmark index on the smaller Shenzhen exchange shed 4.2 percent to 1,161.66. PetroChina, China's biggest oil producer, led the declines, dropping 8.3 percent to 16.99 yuan, slightly above its IPO price of 16.70. PetroChina...

The newly floated oil giant PetroChina has lost a third of a trillion dollars in nominal value in just three weeks, plummeting to a fresh low yesterday as angst gripped the Shanghai stock market. The benchmark CSI 300 index of Chinese stocks has dropped 18pc in November, the worst one-month fall in more than a decade. The bourse has tumbled 22pc since peaking in mid-October after a wild speculative boom that saw prices triple in a year - much like the final phase of Japan's Nikkei frenzy in 1989. It now qualifies as an official "bear market". What began as...

....................................Fidelity has not been the only, or even the largest, U.S. firm enabling the slaughter in Darfur. Earlier this month, Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway, which has roughly $3 billion invested in PetroChina, voted not only against divesting, but against taking any shareholder action on the issue. Mr. Buffett points out that only PetroChina's parent company, China National Petroleum Company (CNPC), operates in Sudan. Since subsidiaries generally do not have control over parent company operations, Mr. Buffett argues that targeting PetroChina for CNPC's transgressions is misguided. But PetroChina and CNPC are two faces of the same entity. The management of...

Fearing they could set an unwelcome precedent, trustees of the California State Teachers' Retirement System on Thursday rejected a call to shed holdings in PetroChina Co. The decision deals a setback to CalSTRS trustee and state Treasurer Phil Angelides, who pushed for divestment, arguing the fund faced "unwarranted risk" because of the government-controlled Chinese oil company's business ties in strife-torn Sudan and environmental disaster in northeastern China. CalSTRS, the nation's second largest public pension fund with $137.1 billion in assets, owns 19.9 million shares of PetroChina, worth about $15.5 million. Trustees also signaled little immediate interest in divesting investments in...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The state pension fund for teachers should sell its $24 million investment in PetroChina Co. following a massive chemical spill at one of the company's plants in northeastern China, state Treasurer Phil Angelides said Friday. Angelides said the firm was slow to respond to the Nov. 13 disaster, which contaminated the drinking water supply for nearly 4 million people. He said the company also has ties to the Sudanese government, which has been accused of human rights violations. "It is clear that PetroChina's activities demonstrate significant environmental risks, human rights violations and ethical liabilities that present too...

HONG KONG State-owned oil companies in China and India are trying to buy a Canadian company with oil fields in Kazakhstan in the most direct competition yet for energy between Asia's two most populous countries. A joint venture of China National Petroleum, China's biggest oil company, and PetroChina, its publicly traded subsidiary, offered roughly $3.2 billion late Monday for PetroKazakhstan, a person close to the negotiations said. Oil & Natural Gas, India's main government oil company, has already reportedly submitted a bid of $3.6 billion in cooperation with the steel maker Mittal Group. PetroKazakhstan, whose shares are traded in Toronto,...

Harvard Divests in PetroChina, Sudan Genocide By David Kute and Leeshai LemishThe Epoch Times Apr 15, 2005 CAMBRIDGE, MA: Harvard President Lawrence Summers releases press statement about divesting PetroChina investment. (Jodi Hilton/Getty Images) BOSTON „ŸHarvard University announced that it will divest funds invested in PetroChina, an oil company said to be linked to genocide in Darfur. "Divestment is not a step that Harvard takes lightly," said Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers in a press release. "But I believe there is a compelling case for action in these special circumstances, in light of the terrible situation still unfolding in Darfur and...