http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aQAqxpngZ1V8&refer=asia Sinopec Targets Africa, Latin America for Projects " March 30 (Bloomberg) -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., Asia’s biggest refiner, is seeking to increase stakes in oil and gas projects in Africa and Latin America to secure supplies and guard against the risk of a rebound in oil prices.
The state-controlled company, also known as Sinopec, will look at projects in politically stable countries with “high- quality” gas and oil reserves, Chairman Su Shulin told reporters in Hong Kong today, without elaborating. " ----------------------------- http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News-By-Industry/Energy/Oil--Gas/Essar-Oil-to-buy-50-stake-in-Kenyan-refinery/articleshow/4316478.cms Essar Oil to buy 50% stake in Kenyan refinery "MUMBAI: Essar Oil is set to acquire a 50% stake in Kenya Petroleum Refinery (KPRL) in Mombasa. The Kenyan government will retain the remaining stake in the 4-million-tonne-a-year refinery. The Mumbai-based company will buy the stake from existing shareholders — Shell Petroleum Company, Chevron Global Energy and BP Africa — and will also upgrade Kenya’s only refinery for a combined investment of $400-450 million.
Essar has outbid Libya’s overseas oil refiner Tamoil for the stake, according to a person close to the development. He said an announcement was likely to be made next week. “Yes, we are engaged in discussions with the Kenya government to move the project ahead. However, we are yet to finalise any agreement,” the Essar Oil spokesperson said in an e-mail reply to ET. " ----------------------------- Of note in relation to Tamoil (Libya) they have purchased probably the largest part of Kenya's oil distribution down to service stations... this is as US oil company's exit to take cash back home. ----------------------------- We are seeing a move by the Chinese (predominantly but not exclusively) to pounce on the weakness of Western investors imho.
We are looking to make a quick buck out of anything even if we know it is a flawed model (just look at the money thrown and BNB and Centro at 'bottoms'...).
We complain about the Chinese capitalising on this, we can look at what happened with RIO when BHP bailed out, the complaints when Chinese looked to OZL and the subsequent screams about our Govt intervention when that nearly fell thru and failure of the company was a possibility... certainly in my investing sphere there was contention when ECE stood up to take 25% of ARU... (Germans already own >40%)...
All of these were available to us but we wanted the quick buck...
It will be interesting to see what happens in Tz, but certainly Aussie and UK investors have shown pretty ordinary vision imho...
Enuf soap box, have a good day.
KEY Price at posting:
7.9¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)
