Asia Oil Takeovers Match US Pace For First Time -- Bloomberg

Updates

December 5, 2012: link to SeekingAlpha.com.

Chinese oil giant China Petrochemical Corp. (SNP), otherwise known as Sinopec, will buy a 20% stake in Total S.A.'s Nigerian offshore oil field for $2.5 billion. This expands Sinopec's overseas asset portfolio significantly. Like its other two leading Chinese oil and gas firms, Sinopec has been attempting to secure its country's energy future globally while Total needs the cash to finance its explorations.

Later, 10:22 pm: amazing. Rigzone.com picked up the same story. 

Original Post

Two things that jump out: of course, the headline -- Asian oil takeovers match the US for first time ever, and, the future date that was referenced: 2015. That's just around the corner. Before the next presidential election. Wow. It's going to be a wild four years. And, oh, by the way, a thank you to Don for sending me this story.

For global warming enthusiasts: note that China's energy consumption and India's energy consumption will increase about 15 percent each over the next couple of years. It's very possible, due to energy conservation and the Great Recession of 2013, the energy consumption of the US will decline during this same period. Certainly it will not increase anywhere near that projected for China and India.

Both China and India are exempt from the Kyoto Protocol -- they are developing nations. Okay.

Link to Bloomberg.

“There are so many more options for Asian companies now with new discoveries around the world. The trend will be led by China, which has a large foreign- exchange reserve and is seeking hard assets.”

China’s energy use is projected to rise 16 percent to 124.2 quadrillion British thermal units by 2015 from 2011 levels, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data.

Consumption in India will gain 14 percent to 27.8 quadrillion Btu, while South Korea will increase 6.7 percent and Japan 4.7 percent, according to the data.

China’s foreign-exchange reserves were $3.29 trillion, the world’s biggest, as of September, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Japan, with $1.2 trillion as of October, had the second-biggest holding. 

The hook at the link: Record Asia Oil Takeovers Match U.S. Pace for First Time: Energy