The Chinese are Coming -- Mea Culpa

On January 8, 2006, we predicted a massive increase in Chinese overseas investment and setting forth the industry sectors in which this expansion was most likely to occur.  Two days later, we ran a post on CNOOC's Nigerian oil field purchase.  A few of our eagle-eyed readers e-mailed to ask why we had not mentioned the energy sector for Chinese overseas expansion.  I responded by telling them we did not foresee Chinese companies buying Western oil companies because of the cold reception given CNOOC when it sought to buy Unocal in 2005.

We blew it. While reading a Business Week article today on China's plans to cooperate with India over oil we realized we should have mentioned energy as one of the leader sectors (and probably THE leading sector) in which to expect Chinese overseas expansion.  China will indeed be furiously looking to acquire energy assets in 2006 - however, in our defense and by way of explanation, probably not in the United States for a while, and probably not any European oil companies for a while either.  Might be nearby, however, as CNN today reports that China's top offshore oil producer, CNOOC Ltd. is "mulling" over making a $2 billion bid to buy Canada-based Nations Energy Company."