Canada approves sale of Nexen

CNOOC finally attains long-sought prize.

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), one of China’s major national oil companies, now owns Canadian oil and gas producer Nexen, Inc.

The Canadian government has approved CNOOC and China's biggest overseas energy acquisition, this one worth US$15.1 billion. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, however, said the government will only consider future takeovers in the oil sands by state-owned companies in exceptional circumstances.

"To be blunt, Canadians have not spent years reducing ownership of sectors of the economy by our own governments only to see them bought and controlled by foreign governments instead," Harper said.

Harper's Conservative government considers the takeover a "net benefit" to Canada. Concerns have been raised that approvals could lead to a flood of deals that put control of Canada's vast energy resources in foreign hands.

"I do not believe that any major industrialised country would allow a major sector of its economy to be transformed into the property of a foreign government through a couple of transactions," Harper said.

Canada’s Alberta oil sands represent 60% of all the oil production around the world that is not already in state hands and Harper said he wants to keep it that way.