China Pays $4.5B for Canadian Oil Sands Stake

Visit www.pickensplan.com/china to read our special report: “Foreign Oil: China has a plan. We don’t.”

The Calgary Herald reports that China will pay ConocoPhillips $4.5 billion for a prime swath of the Canadian oil sands. Writer Deborah Yedlin notes that “the Chinese are continuing with their strategy of snapping up natural resources whatever way they can.” According to Yedlin, the acquisition brings to $30 billion the amount that China has spent over the past year in energy-related investments.

Before the deal with ConocoPhillips was struck, Sinopec had gotten its toe wet when it bought a 40 per cent stake in the Northern Lights project owned by Synenco. Synenco was sold to Total SA in 2008. The deal with Athabasca Oil Sands was another good example, as was the 17 percent stake bought by CNOOC in MEG Energy in 2005. More recently, the same strategy has been put in play in the realm of natural gas.

PetroChina recently entered into a joint bid with Royal Dutch Shell for Australian energy player Arrow Energy for $3.2 billion.

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