Canada's government officially approves Cnooc’s (CEO) bid for Nexen (NXY) and Petronas'...

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bob adamson Comments (4492)
 
Following are four initial analyses by leading Canadian newspapers in response to the Canadian Federal Government’s approval of two outstanding applications by foreign state owned corporations to acquire significant positions in Canada’s oilpatch.
http://natpo.st/UjRQMi

http://bit.ly/VDamGc

http://bit.ly/UjRPrR

http://bit.ly/VDamGh

Arguably the Canadian Government’s objectives are to
(a) establish stricter ground rules to govern future application by foreign state owned corporations;
(b) create favorable conditions for private sector Canadian investment in China;
(c) lower the political ‘temperature’ domestically and abroad surrounding such transactions;
(d) promote (or at least not dampen) Canada’s public policy objective that Canada become less dependent upon US markets and investment.
7 Dec 2012, 07:41 PM Reply Like

rjj1960 Comments (1027)
 
Their objective is to stick it to the U.S after the XL mess. Thanks Mr President.
7 Dec 2012, 10:30 PM Reply Like

bob adamson Comments (4492)
 
rjj1960,

I don't think that the reason for this approval was to 'stick it to the US'. Rather, Canada now sees itself (and has done so for many years) as overly reliant upon US markets and US sources of investment capital and therefore wishes to diversify where this can be done on suitable terms. There is no suggestion that Canada doesn't want to continue strong ties in these matters with the US but only a recognition that over reliance is really not in the interests of either country.

I think that the decisions taken regarding Nexen etc. would have occurred even if the Keystone XL pipeline project had not been delayed.
7 Dec 2012, 11:06 PM Reply Like

AmoCan Comments (19)
 
The message to us is simple....Good bye US, hello China!
9 Dec 2012, 08:32 PM Reply Like