China's CNOOC to launch 19 billion dollar bid for Unocal

[RamboLiberal]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050622/ts_afp/uschinaoilcompany_050622215104

China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) has agreed to launch the biggest ever takeover offer by a Chinese group with a 19 billion dollar bid for US oil major Unocal, according to a report.

The decision to trump a rival bid for Unocal by ChevronTexaco was reached by CNOOC directors in a tense six-hour board meeting held in Beijing on Wednesday, The Financial Times said in its online edition.

It quoted people close to the situation as saying CNOOC had decided to bid about 67 dollars a share for Unocal and would offer to take on 1.6 billion dollars of the US energy group's debt.

At that level, the offer would value Unocal at 19.8 billion dollars, the newspaper said.

It would be higher than Chevron's cash-and-shares offer of 16.4 billion dollars plus debt, and represent a modest premium to Unocal's share price, which closed in New York Wednesday at 64.86 dollars.

[wakeme2008]

1. Thank you all for Shopping at Walmart... You dollars allow us to buy

your Oil companies. :banghead:

[RamboLiberal]

2. Hey are our soldiers now mercenaries for China?

Unocal being one of the reasons we're in Afghanistan?

[maddezmom]

3. earlier link: Congressmen want probe of Unocal bid -WSJ

NEW YORK/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Two U.S. congressmen have asked the Bush administration to review and possibly block any effort by China's CNOOC Ltd. to acquire Unocal Corp., The Wall Street Journal reported.

The move comes amid reports that CNOOC, China's third largest oil group, was set to announce a counter-offer to trump California-based Chevron Corp's $16-billion bid for Unocal.

Richard Pombo and Duncan Hunter, Republican congressmen from California, urged President Bush to exercise his authority under a 1988 federal law to begin a review by the Committee on Foreign Investments in the U.S., an inter-agency panel chaired by Treasury Secretary John Snow, the Journal said.

After the review, Bush could block the deal, although such a move would be highly unusual, Sunday's Journal report said.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1564240

[aquart]

5. So our mineral resources go to China like our industry did?

Thank you for making us a third world nation, Georgie.

[Carla in Ca]

4. And, it is a CASH offer

I heard to Ed Schultz's show today that they also have made a deal with Canada and Venezuela for oil. We are in deep doo-doo.

[KamaAina]

6. So how would this affect the Central Asian pipeline situation?

Would "Mayor of Kabul" Hamid Karzai then become a paid employee of the Chinese? It boggles the mind...

That sound you hear in the distance is Pat Buchanan's head exploding. :nuke:

[Nihil]

9. Not forgetting Iraq ...

... whose puppet president also had (has?) ties to Unocal

(Edit: Not sure if still has ties or not)

[VegasWolf]

7. China, Emperor Bush's Waterloo. nt

[cosmicdot]

8. a carpet of bombs provide a carpet of gold

~ mission accomplished ~

certainly a now completed Afghan pipeline
is part of the deal ... and, what a deal ...
at the expense of the American people, our treasury, armed forces, and lives

I hear a deep, gravely voice in my head ...

"Henry Kissinger, a former Unocal consultant deeply involved in the
pre-9/11 pipeline consortium, sits on CNOOC's international board,
which he joined in October 2001. Essentially, Kissinger has been on
both sides of the oil deal for years, from CentGas to whatever comes
of CNOOC's play for Unocal."

"While the flames of world war burn, true inner circle elites like
Kissinger play all sides, up and down, profiting all along the way."

http://www.onlinejournal.com/blog/2005_06_01_archive

[Karmadillo]

10. China oil producer bids $18.5 billion for Unocal

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002345309_chinaunocal23.html

CNOOC, China's third-largest oil producer, offered to buy Unocal for $18.5 billion in cash yesterday, topping the $16.6 billion Chevron agreed to pay for the U.S. oil and gas company.

If successful, it would be the biggest-ever overseas acquisition for a Chinese company.

CNOOC Chairman Fu Chengyu wants Unocal, which has half of its oil and gas reserves in Asia, to secure energy for China as oil trades near $60 a barrel.

He needs to convince Unocal's investors that the premium over Chevron's agreed offer compensates for the risk that the U.S. government would block CNOOC's bid.

more...

[Oversea Visitor]

11. Man they

cashing out
and running

[Pryderi]

12. With China holding a ton of Bush's debt, can the US block the takeover?

[DuaneBidoux]

15. You see that's the problem with "debt"

When someone has your money, they have a right, inherently, to use it. To give people money for goods and then refuse to let them use it to buy what they want has a very very negative impact on a currency.

[htuttle]

13. Is this where we sell them the rope to hang us with?

Or did we do that already?


"When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope we use."
-- Joseph Stalin

[NewJeffCT]

14. We sold them rope we bought at Wal-Mart

which means it was made in China in the first place.

[htuttle]

17. But you have to admit,...

...we got a damn good price on that rope!

[NewJeffCT]

19. of course

and, never mind that guy that lost a few fingers cutting the rope... or the workers breathing in noxious fumes all day for $1 per day at the rope factory... or the toxic waste they dump into the local river...

[DuaneBidoux]

16. The worst?: Chinese labor standards brought to American shores.

[DuaneBidoux]

18. Can you consider editing the title? Or at least look at the link I used

which had a much more powerful and explanatory title that conveyed the sense of urgency and I believe would have generated more responses.

here is the link to the locked thread and the title that I think could be much more powerful.

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1574224>

This brings up a weird thing that I never thought about which is what if someone has a GREAT article on a news item that is far superior to the first one and you know your link would be easier to understand and garner better discussion?

[cliss]

20. Just imagine for a moment, China

with most of the oil supplies around the world. In a few years, imagine them driving around with big Chinese-made SUV's, polluting and just plain wasting gas for their frivolous lifestyles.

Meanwhile, back in the USA, we're driving little MG's, turning Volkswagen's into mini-trucks because they use less gas, scrounging for the last remaining barrels of oil.

This isn't too hard to envision. China has negotiated with Hugo Chavez, also Russia. I believe they've made a deal with Iran, at least for their natural gas.

It's coming, Hummer-drivers.

[Capt_Nemo]

21. Halliburton, you're next!

shouts comrade Hu Jintao!
:evilgrin:

[paineinthearse]

22. The Times analysis: America still sees reds under CNOOC's bed over Unocal

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8210-1668214,00.html

June 25, 2005

Analysis

America still sees reds under CNOOC's bed over Unocal bid
By Carl Mortished, International Business Editor

ITS our oil, they think in Washington. How dare the Chinese try to take it from us.

No one has expressed it in quite those terms but the hostile bid for Unocal by CNOOC, the Chinese state oil company, is sending senators rushing to erect protectionist barriers. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, called on John Snow, the Treasury Secretary, to conduct a thorough review of the attempted takeover under the Defense Production Act. “I don’t think being a free trader is synonymous with being a patsy,” he said.

Richard d’Amato, chairman of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, said: “This is not a free market deal, This is the Chinese Government acquiring energy resources.” A review of the $18.5 billion (£10.15 billion) bid on national security grounds now seems inevitable and a rattled CNOOC was yesterday making conciliatory noises, suggesting full cooperation with the review and a willingness to dispose of certain Unocal pipeline and storage assets.

That may not be enough to appease the US nationalists who in their protectionist frenzy are making the same mistake as the commissars in Beijing and the sheikhs of Araby. They are becoming oil hoarders. In September last year, Lee Raymond, the chairman of ExxonMobil, told Opec member states to open up their economies to foreign investment. Invited to speak at a conference organised by the cartel, he said there was an urgent need for investment, because the world would need an extra 65 to 85 million barrels of oil per day by 2020.

The Exxon boss said: “The future need for petroleum energy will be such that restrictions in whatever form and wherever imposed , will jeopardise access to adequate energy supplies for world consumers.” Oil is fungible. It is the world’s most traded commodity and it moves to the highest bidder. Lee Raymond was objecting to the political exclusion of Western oil companies from Opec states which, since the 1960s, have imposed barriers of national sovereignty on their oil resources. It is a dangerous exclusion because the cushion of spare capacity that Opec once provided is almost vanished and the cartel lacks the investment clout to quickly replenish the lost potential.

more.......