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According to the newspaper, PetroChina is to buy all of CNPC’s overseas assets for US$5 billion and “pick up production or exploration rights in Kazakhstan, Venezuela, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, Peru and Azerbaijan to add to its Indonesian production”.
Citing anonymous sources within China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), the Standard stated, “The move is part of a broader effort to create a string of corporate heavyweights that can hold their own in competition with the likes of the major multinationals such as Exxon-Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell.”
“The task [is] made more urgent by the country's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) [and] under the terms of its WTO entry China will gradually open its markets to global competition. The central government is worried that few, if any, Chinese companies are up to the challenge,” it added.
