A major US$ 31.9bn liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Canada has received the go-ahead from its partners. The project is a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell, Malaysia's Petronas, PetroChina, Korea Gas Corporation, and Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation. It is the single largest private sector investment project in Canada's history.
Since 2009, China has been taking a much more active role in its pursuit of international oil contracts. In 2009, for the first time, Saudi Arabia exported more of its oil to China than it did to the US. China also made large investments in Saudi Arabia's oil refining industry as well. But China's oil investments didn't stop there; they also pursued oil producing Canadian assets in 2011/12.
Grins were on the faces of China National Petroleum executives last week as they celebrated a blockbuster 30-year deal for Russian gas. It was a good day for CNPC, the state-owned colossus at the center of China's oil and gas webs and one of Eurasia's biggest energy investors.
China Petrochemical Corporation, Sinopec, has agreed to buy a 33% stake in the Egyptian oil and gas business of US firm Apache Corporation. Sinopec will pay Apache 3.1bn dollars in cash for the stake. The deal is the latest in a series of similar moves by Chinese oil firms as they look to secure energy supplies to meet growing domestic demand.