Friday, October 26, 2012

Alberta's Citizens Against Growing Chinese Efforts to Acquire Energy Assets

The conservative government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been assiduously touting China as a vast new potential energy market for Canada’s hydrocarbon exports, most notably Alberta’s rising bitumen oil sands production.
How the citizens of the Canada’s Alberta province feel about Harper’s outreach to China, which is seeking to acquire Canadian energy assets, has been revealed in a recent survey by the China Institute of the University of Alberta.
Why the fuss?
Three months ago China’s State-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp. proposed buying Canada’s Nexen Inc., paying roughly $15.1 billion would for Nexen Inc.'s common and preferred shares. Nexen Inc., an oil and gas company based in Calgary, Alberta, has worldwide operations including the North Sea, Colombia, the Gulf of Mexico, and Alberta's Athabasca Oil Sands.
In its second annual survey of Albertan public opinion, “2012 Annual Alberta Survey – Albertan’s views on China,” which polled 1,210 people, the Institute found that the province’s population’s views on China’s increasing regional influence are mixed at best. Harper recently acknowledged as much in response to a recent question in the House of Commons in Ottawa, with Harper admitting that that Chinese companies have been able to invest easily in Canada, while Canadian investments in China have been more difficult, telling his House of Commons audience in the capital Ottawa, “Canada has had a situation with the People’s Republic of China for some years where their investment has been virtually unrestricted here and we have had more difficulty with our investment there.”

Read more: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Albertas-Citizens-Against-Growing-Chinese-Efforts-to-Acquire-Energy-Assets.html

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