China’s oil giant CNPC is looking for overseas acquisition targets

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and its listed company PetroChina are looking to buy oil and gas exploration and production assets and LNG opportunities globally, in what could be a deal-making revival for the state-owned giant Chinese after two decades.

CNPC may seek to expand its current LNG investments in Qatar, one of the world’s largest LNG exporters, Lu Ruquan, director of the Chinese company’s Economic and Technological Research Institute (ETRI), which is involved in strategy discussions.

CNPC already has an agreement for a 27-year LNG supply deal from state-owned QatarEnergy and a 5% stake in one of the trains of Qatar’s massive North Field expansion project.

The Chinese state-owned energy company is also looking for opportunities to acquire deepwater acreage in South America near Guyana’s huge oil discoveries, Lu told Reuters.

Exxon has announced massive oil discoveries off Guyana in recent years in a consortium that includes another Chinese state operator, CNOOC.

Earlier this year, ExxonMobil – which currently pumps in a consortium with the US Hess Corporation and China’s CNOOC all the crude oil Guyana produces – announced plans to develop a seventh offshore oil project on the prolific Stabroek block. Guyana expects to receive the development plan for Exxon’s seventh oil project off the South American country early next year, Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat said earlier this month.

CNPC and PetroChina now plan to extract more oil from aging fields and face complex geopolitical realities with sanctions against Russia, Iran and Venezuela.

According to Lu, CNPC may face its biggest geopolitical hurdles since it first invested outside China in the early 1990s.

CNPC and PetroChina continued to make international purchases until the early 2000s. During this time, PetroChina bought Devon Energy’s business in Indonesia as well as assets in Kazakhstan.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More top reads from Oilprice.com