CNOOC buys share in Nigerian oil area
By Wang Ying (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-04-21 08:59
China's top offshore oil and gas producer China National Offshore Oil Corp
Limited (CNOOC) said yesterday it had completed a deal to buy a share of a
Nigerian oil mining licence in its biggest-ever overseas acquisition.
The Beijing-based oil company bought a 45 per cent stake in Nigeria's OML 130
oil area also known as the Akpo deposit from privately owned Nigerian
firm South Atlantic Petroleum Ltd, CNOOC said in a statement.
In January
it said it would pay US$2.27 billion in cash for the stake, but in yesterday's
announcement it said it was paying an additional US$424 million for financial,
operating and capital expenses.
"The completion of this transaction
represents a milestone in our efforts to expand into the world's most prolific
oil and gas basins," Chairman Fu Chengyu said.
The Akpo field, about 200
kilometres off the coast of Port Harcourt, will be able to pump 225,000 barrels
a day of oil after it comes on stream in 2008, or 9 per cent of Nigeria's
current production, according to operator Total SA.
CNOOC has said it
would contribute more than US$2 billion to develop the field.
Last year,
the firm offered US$18.5 billion for California-based Unocal, but withdrew its
bid in August amid political opposition in the United States which said the
multi-billion takeover would threaten the country's energy
security.
CNOOC's shares have risen 24 per cent since it announced the
Nigeria purchase on January 9, outperforming the 8.3 per cent gain in the
benchmark Hang Seng Index.
It made a 2.2 per cent gain yesterday on the
Hong Kong Stock Exchange to close at HK$6.85 (88 US cents).
The company
on Wednesday said it would invest about 100 billion yuan (US$12.3 billion) over
the next five years to speed up deepwater drilling along the coast of China and
increase output.
The overseas-listed oil firm plans to strengthen
partnerships with foreign companies and also develop its own technologies
in deepwater oil and gas development, said Tan Dongling, a development and
planning manager at CNOOC.
By 2010, more than 50 new gas and oil fields
will be completed and put into production, Xinhua quoted Tan as
saying.
The new fields, 24 of which are under construction and 13 being
assessed for development, are mainly located in East China's Bohai Sea, the
Pearl River estuary and the Beibu Gulf in the South China Sea, said
Tan.
CNOOC on Wednesday announced that its new gas field in the eastern
part of the South China Sea had started operating.
The field, Huizhou
21-1, is producing 54 million cubic metres of natural gas per day, the firm
said. CNOOC holds a 51 per cent stake in it.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates) |