With no confirmation of the story about Chesapeake selling its Bakken acreage that ran March 1, 2013, one starts to wonder about the story's veracity. However,
this Bloomberg story might a) put it in perspective; and, b) explain what might be going on.
China
National Petroleum Corp., the country’s biggest oil company, is seeking
its first stake in the U.S. as Chinese explorers with $40 billion of
cash try to join an energy renaissance unlocking billions of barrels of
crude.
“We are currently studying” investing in U.S. oil, Jiang Jiemin,
chairman of the state-run company, said yesterday at the National
People’s Congress meetings in Beijing. Domestic rival China
Petrochemical Corp. last month agreed to buy stakes in an Oklahoma field
from Chesapeake Energy Corp. for $1.02 billion.
Chinese oil companies using government loans want stakes in shale fields
that are fostering the most crude production in the U.S. in 21 years
and helping wean it off Middle Eastern imports. They’ll be guided by the
experience of China’s CNOOC Ltd.,
whose $19 billion bid for Unocal Corp. was blocked by U.S. lawmakers
eight years ago. CNOOC last month won U.S. approval for a $15.1 billion
purchase of Nexen Inc., albeit with curbs on operating the Canadian company’s Gulf of Mexico fields in U.S. waters.
