China Stakes Claim to South Texas Oil, Gas

Houston Chronicle State-owned Chinese energy giant CNOOC is buying a multibillion-dollar stake in 600,000 acres of South Texas oil and gas fields, potentially testing the political waters for further expansion into U.S. energy reserves.

With the announcement Monday that it would pay up to $2.2 billion for a one-third stake in Chesapeake Energy assets, CNOOC lays claim to a share of properties that eventually could produce up to half a million barrels a day of oil equivalent.

As part of the deal, the largest purchase of an interest in U.S. energy assets by a Chinese company...



It also might pick up some American know-how about tapping the hard-to-get deposits trapped in dense shale rock formations, analysts said.


Read on at Houston Chronicle