<font size="6"><b style="color:rgb(255,0,0)">And the environmental/public health consequences are?</b></font><br clear="all"><h1>China paying billions for oil deals in the Americas</h1><span class="byline">By <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/29/investing/china-oil-energy/steve.hargreaves@turner.com">Steve Hargreaves</a></span> <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/user?screen_name=cnnmoneyinvest" class="soc-twtname">@CNNMoneyInvest</a>
<span class="cnnDateStamp">May 29, 2012: 4:55 AM ET</span><div id="ie_dottop"> <a href="http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/gasprices/"><img src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/2012/05/29/investing/china-oil-energy/canadian-oil-sands.gi.top.jpg" alt="China is paying billions for North and South American oil and other energy projects. Analysts say that should be good for all consumers." border="0" height="307" width="475"></a><p>
China
is paying billions for North and South American oil and other energy
projects. Analysts say that should be good for all consumers.</p></div><p>NEW
YORK (CNNMoney) -- Eager to feed its growing energy appetite, China's
worldwide buying binge for oil and other energy assets is spreading to
North and South America.</p><p>Yet most analysts say China's newfound
interest in American energy may actually be good for U.S. consumers, as
it will likely increase oil and gas supplies worldwide and possibly
lower prices.</p><p><b>Big deals:</b> Earlier this month, reports said PetroChina (<span class="inlink_chart"><a class="inlink" href="http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=PTR&source=story_quote_link">PTR</a></span>) is close to buying an old refinery on Aruba owned by American refining giant Valero (<span class="inlink_chart"><a class="inlink" href="http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=VLO&source=story_quote_link">VLO</a></span>, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/snapshots/10620.html?source=story_f500_link">Fortune 500</a>). </p>
<p>China
is also said to be interested in building a pipeline to carry 300,000
barrels a day of Colombian oil to the Pacific Coast, according to a
recent Eurasia Group note.</p><p>These deals come on the heels of some other <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/11/news/economy/foreign_oil/index.htm">major energy acquisitions</a>. </p><p>They include CNOOC (<span class="inlink_chart"><a class="inlink" href="http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=CEO&source=story_quote_link">CEO</a></span>)'s<b> </b>purchase
of a $2 billion stake in Chesapeake's Texas oil fields in 2010 as well
as CNOOC's $2 billion purchase of Canadian oil sands operator OPTI
Canada in 2011. </p><p>Also in 2011, China National Petroleum Corp. paid
over $5 billion for a joint venture in Canadian shale gas properties
held by Encana (<span class="inlink_chart"><a class="inlink" href="http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=ECA&source=story_quote_link">ECA</a></span>), and Sinopec (<span class="inlink_chart"><a class="inlink" href="http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=SHI&source=story_quote_link">SHI</a></span>) put down $7 billion for a share in Brazil's deepwater oil assets.</p>
<p><b>An insatiable appetite:</b> The acquisitions are being driven by a basic need for energy. </p><p>China
currently consumes about 10 million barrels of oil a day -- roughly
half of what the United States uses. Like the United States, China
imports about half the oil it needs.</p><p>But unlike the United States, where oil demand is flat or declining, demand in China is expected to jump 50% by 2020.</p><p>"They
have to get as much as they can from where ever they can," said David
Fridley, a staff scientist at the China Energy Group at Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory. "Going to the Americas gives them a legal
and political regime that ensures stability."</p><p>Much of China's energy and natural resource buys have been in unstable places -- Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa.</p><p>The Americas region is arguably much more stable than any of<b> </b>those regions. That's<b> </b>an attractive prospect for a country that relies on a steady flow of resources. </p>
<p>The
Americas are also in the midst of an energy boom. From oil sands
production in Canada to shale gas in the United States to promising
deepwater finds off Brazil, the Americas are quickly becoming <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/27/news/economy/oil_boom/index.htm">an energy powerhouse</a>.</p><p><b>Raising suspicions:</b>
As with most major-power forays into the Western Hemisphere, interest
in the region's resources by an outside country is bound to produce some
unease in the United States.</p><p>But analysts say any increase in
global energy production, whether it's by a Chinese firm or a company
from any other country, should lower <a href="http://money.cnn.com/data/commodities/">oil prices</a> for everyone.</p><p>"The
popular impression is 'oh, China is poking its head into our
businesses,'" said Fridley. "But it makes everyone's pie bigger."</p><p>Al
Troner, a former scholar at the East-West Center who now heads Asia
Pacific Energy Consulting, said China's interest in Western Hemisphere
refineries shows that it will likely make gas, diesel fuel and other
products available for the global market.</p><p>China's oil companies,
he said, aren't simply interested in sending supplies back home to
China, but rather using their partnerships in the Americas to become
truly global oil firms that can compete with the likes of Exxon Mobil (<span class="inlink_chart"><a class="inlink" href="http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=XOM&source=story_quote_link">XOM</a></span>, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/snapshots/387.html?source=story_f500_link">Fortune 500</a>), BP (<span class="inlink_chart"><a class="inlink" href="http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=BP&source=story_quote_link">BP</a></span>) or Royal Dutch Shell (<span class="inlink_chart"><a class="inlink" href="http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=RDSA&source=story_quote_link">RDSA</a></span>).</p>
<p>"This
is not some insidious 1960s plot to destroy the Untied Sates," said
Troner. "If they can increase supply as well as demand, then what's the
loss for anyone?" <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/29/investing/china-oil-energy/index.htm?hpt=hp_t2#TOP"><img src="http://i.cdn.turner.com/money/images/bug.gif" alt="To top of page" border="0" height="7" width="7"></a></p>
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