I heard two interesting oil stories from last week’s US visit.
First, Libya has rejected a $417 million bid by China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) for Verenex, a Canadian oil-exploration company with Libyan oil leases. Libya’s national company has since purchased Verenex at 30% less than CNPC’s offer price. I’m not sure if Libya’s response was specific to China itself, or a de-facto attempt to nationalize some of its oil assets.

