A sure-fire deal
The third largest oil company in China has taken a fancy to the 14th largest Canadian oil company.
20 12 On July 23rd, China Offshore Oil Co., Ltd. announced the acquisition of Canadian Nexen Company, and proposed the purchase price of 15 1 billion USD. Lv Bo, deputy general manager of China Offshore Oil Group, said in an interview with China Economic Times on July 27, 20 12 that CNOOC is confident of successfully acquiring Nexen and is currently waiting for the approval of relevant government departments.
In the past week, CNOOC's acquisition of Nixon became one of the biggest news in the international energy industry, and the purchase price of $65,438 +0.5 1 100 million reached the highest value among oil acquisitions in recent years. However, unlike the one-sided questioning of domestic media, most foreign media, especially Canadian media, are optimistic about the acquisition.
In 2005, Liu Feng (pseudonym), who was sent to Canada by a domestic oil company to participate in the oil sands exploitation project, told this reporter that compared with government departments, the Canadian industry was more supportive of the acquisition. "On the one hand, the purchase price is relatively high, on the other hand, CNOOC has a good commitment to the local government and will not affect local employment and fiscal revenue."
CNOOC said that it had signed an acquisition agreement with Nixon to acquire Nixon's common stock at a price of US$ 27.50 per share, which was 665,438+0% higher than that on July 20. CNOOC has promised to establish its headquarters in Calgary, Canada, and intends to keep Nixon's existing management and staff, and to list on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Lian Yu, the management consultant of Lu Zhengjun's policy, called it a "comprehensive" acquisition. "CNOOC has learned the lessons from the failure of the acquisition of Unocal in the United States, carefully designed the acquisition link, and fully considered the resistance of the local government and people in every link."
Why Nixon?
Lv Bo, deputy general manager of CNOOC, bluntly told China Economic Times that Nixon is a very good company.
As the 14 largest oil company in Canada, by the end of last year, Nixon had proven reserves of 900 million barrels of oil equivalent, estimated reserves of 654.38+065.438+22 million barrels of oil equivalent, and potential resources of 5.6 billion barrels of oil equivalent, mainly in Canadian oil sands.
In the past few years, Nixon has expanded rapidly around the world, and some projects are facing investment losses. The project in Yemen had to be withdrawn because of the local war, which directly affected the company's capital flow, and it was also the reason why Nixon had to seek foreign aid a few years ago.
Liu Feng said that unlike some Canadian oil giants, Nixon's oil and gas assets are mostly overseas, so it faces greater investment risks.
"But in the long run, the acquisition of Nixon is still a good deal for CNOOC, and Nixon's economies of scale can help CNOOC achieve rapid overseas expansion." Liu Feng analyzed that Nexen has a complete industrial chain in the upper, middle and lower reaches of petroleum, with considerable comprehensive benefits. Its advanced technology, management experience and mature operation team will provide reference for CNOOC.
Nixon's assets are distributed in the world's most important producing areas, such as western Canada, the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Sea of Nigeria, including conventional oil and gas, oil sands and shale gas resources.
Why Canada?
The close exchange of high-level visits between China and China has created conditions for Canadian enterprises to enter the Canadian market.
2011165438+1At the beginning of October, Joe Oliver, the newly appointed Canadian Minister of Natural Resources, visited China and met with the directors of PetroChina, Sinopec and CNOOC.
Informed sources told reporters that during these meetings, Oliver invited China Oil Company to invest in Canada and promised to provide a better investment environment. The acquisition of Nixon is one of the topics discussed by CNOOC and Joe Oliver.
As the third largest crude oil reserve country in the world, Canada's oil sands are mainly concentrated in northern Alberta, with oil reserves as high as 654.38+075 billion barrels, second only to Saudi Arabia and Venezuela in the world. The local oil sands are mainly open to the private sector, and hundreds of companies are engaged in upstream mining.
Liu Feng said that the Canadian crude oil exploitation market is very active. If the engineering companies providing services for oil exploitation are counted, there are more than 1000 related enterprises.
"Many private individuals have applied to the local government for exploration rights in oil and gas blocks. Many companies sell their projects because of poor efficiency, and some people specialize in capital operation in Canada and find suitable projects to sell after preliminary exploration. This has led to frequent local project transactions and created opportunities for oil companies in China to enter. " Liu Feng said.
Just after Joe Oliver's visit to China, Canadian Prime Minister Harper led five ministers and industry elites from various industries in Canada to visit China on February 7, 20 12, and Joe Oliver was among them. In February, Joe Oliver visited the chairmen of three domestic oil companies in China again.
For Liu Feng, after the close relationship between China and Canada, the most intuitive feeling brought to him is that when China's oil companies declare some procedures to the local government authorities for projects in Canada, the process is much faster than that of seven years ago.
Canada's National Energy Agency released a report on July 22nd, saying that Canada's oil sands production will reach more than three times the current output in 2035, and the daily output of oil sands will reach 565.438 billion+barrels. In 2035, the total output of crude oil will double to 6 million barrels per day, and oil sands will become the most important source of crude oil production.
Oil companies aim at Canada
With the continuous warming of Sino-Canadian relations, China's three major oil companies have turned their overseas investments to Canada.
Since 2005, Sinopec has acquired the equity of a Canadian company, and Liu Feng was sent to Canada at that time. In his impression, at that time, the three major oil companies in China had shown great interest in Canadian oil resources.
After 2005, CNOOC began to invest in Canadian oil sands projects and acquire the rights and interests of MEGEnergyInc , OPTICanadaInc and 60% of northern cross (Yukon) co., ltd. It is worth noting that the OPTICanadaInc project is Nixon's partner in the LongLake steam-assisted gravity oil drainage project and upgrading plant.
Lianyu told reporters that CNOOC has cooperated with Nixon on a small scale, which laid the foundation for this large-scale cooperation, which is essentially different from CNOOC's previous acquisition of Unocal.
Another noteworthy acquisition also took place on July 23, 20 12. China Petrochemical announced that through its wholly-owned subsidiary, International Petroleum Exploration and Development Corporation, it has formally signed a subscription agreement with Canadian Tower Riesman Energy Company to acquire 49% of the shares of the latter's British subsidiary for US$ 654.38+05 billion. A person from Sinopec told reporters that the transaction still needs to be approved by the relevant government.
PetroChina, which first entered the Canadian market, has several local projects in operation, most of which are still in the early stage of development. The reason may be that PetroChina has many high-quality projects with high cost performance in other countries, and the cost of oil sands exploitation is relatively high. But this statement has not been confirmed by China Petroleum.
As an important crude oil resource, oil sands, like coal, are buried in the shallow layer of the earth's surface. Different from conventional oil and gas resources, it is necessary to drill deep wells to find crude oil, so the exploration cost is low, but the cost of refining crude oil is about 1/3 ~ 1/2 higher than that of conventional oil and gas. Liu Feng called it a business with little risk and little profit.
At the same time, Canadian standardized market environment and stable political environment have attracted China oil companies to enter.
Lianyu said that the investment environment in Canada is better than that in Central Asia and Africa, where China oil companies were concentrated before, and the political risk is relatively small, so it is a relatively high-quality resource region.
CNOOC revealed that before the invitation to buy Nixon was issued, the total investment in Canada had reached 2.8 billion Canadian dollars.
Liu Feng said that if CNOOC succeeds in acquiring Unocal, CNOOC's oil production in Canada will reach 654.38 billion tons per year, far exceeding Sinopec and PetroChina.
Limited by the transportation conditions of crude oil in Canada, most of the crude oil currently exploited by China petroleum enterprises in Canada can only be sold locally. With the continuous expansion of business scope, China Petroleum Company is expanding more sales channels. In the future, a pipeline will be opened to bypass the United States and transport crude oil from Canada to the Pacific Ocean. This pipeline, which is called "Northern Gateway Pipeline Project" by local people, is still in the design stage. Sinopec is its minority shareholder with less than 5% of the shares.
Lv Bo admitted to reporters that the acquisition of Nixon still needs to wait for the approval of the countries where the resources are located, such as the United States and Britain. However, he did not disclose whether CNOOC needed to pay Nixon's existing foreign debt of more than $4 billion.
Lianyu analyzed that if CNOOC succeeds in acquiring Nixon, it will play an exemplary role for other domestic oil companies, or a number of large-scale acquisitions will appear one after another. Previously, most oil companies in China mainly bought a small amount of shares in Canadian oil companies.
For China Oil Company, which is gearing up to enter Canada in a big way, there is still a problem to consider-how to make more balanced use of Canada's oil production capacity. Therefore, the "Northern Gateway Pipeline Plan" is particularly critical, but it will take at least five years for the pipeline to be completed. During this period, it was difficult to export Canadian crude oil flexibly, and it was no longer limited to Canada.
Cnooc obtains US license to acquire Nixon.
On the evening of February 12, Beijing time, China Offshore Oil Corporation announced that CNOOC's proposal to acquire Canadian Nexen Company had been approved by the US Foreign Investment Committee. This is also the last set of regulatory permits needed to complete this transaction, which means that the last obstacle faced by the largest overseas M&A transaction in the history of this Asian country has been eliminated.