Nov 4 (Reuters) - China has become a major investor in African energy and mineral resources, which it needs to feed its booming economy.
Here are some of the assets Chinese firms have bought or are trying to purchase and deals reached in Africa in recent years:
August 2009 — State-owned oil firm China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) confirmed it was bidding for Kosmos Energy’s stakes in the Jubilee oilfield offshore Ghana, which could be worth between $3 billion to $5 billion.
July 2009 — CNOOC and Sinopec Group, parent of Sinopec Corp, agreed to purchase a stake in an oil block offshore Angola from Marathon Oil for $1.3 billion.. Angolan state firm Sonangol later exercised a pre-emption right, blocking the Chinese purchase.
June 2009 — Sinopec Group bought Swiss oil explorer Addax Petroleum Corp for $7.2 billion, gaining access to high-potential oil blocks in West Africa and Iraq.
June 2009 — State-owned Nonferrous Metal Mining Corp (CNMC) pledges to invest $400 million in Zambia’s Luanshya Copper Mines after formally taking over running the mines.
April 2009 — China granted Niger a $95 million preferential loan for the SOMINA uranium mining operation, a joint venture between China National Uranium Corporation and the Niger government. Their mine is due to come on line in 2010.
January 2009 — China Union signed a $2.6 billion contract to develop Liberia’s Bong iron ore deposits, estimated at 300 million tonnes of low-grade ore. The first iron ore pellets are expected in mid-2010.
June 2008 — Top Chinese oil and gas firm CNPC struck a $5 billion deal with Niger’s government to pump oil from the Agadem block within three years, and lay a 2, 000-km pipeline to export it. CNPC also said it would build a 20, 000 barrels per day oil refinery, Niger’s first.
June 2006 — Sinopec Group acquired some offshore blocks in Angola for about $1 billion.
April 2006 — CNOOC bought a stake in a Nigerian deepwater oil field for $2.7 billion.
July 2005 — China and Nigeria signed an $800 million crude oil sale deal between Petrochina International and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to supply 30, 000 barrels of crude oil per day to China.
December 2004 — Sinopec and the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company agree to drill for oil in the Niger delta.
October 2004 — Sinopec secured a 50 percent interest — shared with state firm Sonangol — in Angola’s Block 18.
July 2004 — Algeria grants three exploration blocks to China’s top two oil groups CNPC and Sinopec in a licensing round.
Jan/Feb 2004 — Total Gabon signed a contract with China’s Sinopec to sell Gabonese crude oil to China.
Before 2004 — CNPC had a 40 percent interest in Sudan’s 300, 000 bpd Unity fields in the south. It also had a large share in the Melut Basin fields.
For maps and charts detailing China-Africa trade ahead, click http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/RNGS/NOV/AFRICA.jpg
