China has failed, twice in the last two months, to get what it wanted in Africa. In Libya its state hydrocarbon behemoth CNPC grudgingly agreed to let the Libyan government acquire Verenex Energy, after a drawn out dispute. In Angola, the  state hydrocarbon company Sonangol blocked the sale of Marathon’s 20% stake in the ultradeepwater block 32.
Verenex, a Canadian independent,  had been up for sale since February 2009 and CNPC-China National Petroleum Corporation-had negotiated to buy it. But the company has its largest asset in Libya and that country’s government opposed the sale. After six months of wrangling, CNPC wrote to Verenex to terminate its acquisition agreement with the Calgary based minnow. Two weeks later, Verenex announced it agreed to be acquired by the Libyan Investment Authority for the price of $6.63 per share in cash.
“The Libyan Investment Authority has assets of over $65 billion and is pleased to add the Verenex business to its oil and gas portfolio,” said Mohamed Layas, executive director of the Libyan fund.
In Angola, Sonangol, which owns 20 percent in the highly prospective, TOTAL operated Block 32, said in early September 2009 it had exercised the right of first refusal over Marathon’s decision to sell the stake to CNOOC and Sinopec, two Chinese state owned firms.This right allows it to step in as the buyer for the price the Chinese firms had offered: $1.3 billion. Block 32 has already yielded 12 discoveries. TOTAL holds a 30 percent stake, with Exxon Mobil having 15 percent and Portugal’s Galp owning 5 percent. The block is estimated to hold 1.5Billion barrels.
For keen watchers of petroleum rights issues around Africa, the inability of a Chinese state company to acquire an asset in any country on the continent, even when it has put enough cash on the table for the purchase, is instructive. The Angolan case.........................................full details in www.africaoilgasreport.com