Chinese giant set to buy US oil assets: company

OSLO: Norwegian energy group Statoil said on Wednesday it was selling some of its oil assets in the United States to China's state-owned CNOOC, marking the first step by a Chinese energy major into the US market.

"On 29 October Statoil signed a farm down agreement with the Chinese company CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corporation) involving a number of Statoil's leases in Gulf of Mexico," Statoil said in a third quarter earnings statement.

Statoil did not give further details but spokesman Kai Nielsen told AFP that the size of the deal was "very small."

In 2005, CNOOC was forced to cancel an 18.5-billion-dollar (12.4-billion-euro) deal with US company Unocal following domestic political opposition in the United States over the sale of strategic assets to China.

Statoil said last month it could sell some of its US assets.

In its results statement on Wednesday, the firm reported rising profits but voiced caution about the prospects for a global economic recovery.

"Although we see signs of improvement in the global economy, there is no firm evidence that industry investment, employment and private consumption have recovered in a sustainable way," chief executive Helge Lund said.

"This calls for cautiousness. Statoil is continuing to reduce cost, and we still have the flexibility to adjust our activity in response to a volatile business environment," he added.

Statoil's net profit in the third quarter went up 13.9 percent to 7.4 billion kroner (1.3 billion dollars, 872.2 million euros) compared to 6.5 billion kroner in the same quarter last year.

Production went up eight percent on a 12-month comparison to 1.874 million barrels per day, while turnover fell 29.6 percent to 122.4 billion kroner because of the fall in oil prices in recent months.