The expected sale by United States major Chevron of its US$700 million-plus gas field stake in Myanmar could also see a tussle develop between the petroleum firms as part of their struggle to gain access to overseas energy resources.
But existing partners with PetroKazakhstan - a US$3.2 billion Canada-based company with all its assets in central Asia – could thwart the expansion ambitions of China National Petroleum Corporation (CPNC) and India's ONGC by exercising their pre-emptive rights to PetroKazakhstan assets and equity.
Analysts expect CPNC, that country's largest oil group, to bid more than US$3.2 billion for PetroKazakhstan, just weeks after the country’s third largest oil group China National Offshore Oil Corporation withdrew its $18.5 billion bid for Unocal in the face of some fierce United States favouritism for Chevron, the successful bidder.
Indian oil minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has urged Chinese and Indian government-controlled energy firms to collaborate to prevent ever spiraling acquisition costs.
But analysts say the sale of these latest two assets highlights the difficulty of joint approaches in the name of national oil security and that the two countries may be forced to search even harder for new indigenous reserves to help fuel their fast-growing economies.
They add that CNPC, parent of PetroChina, is better placed to win the PetroKazakhstan auction as the central Asian company’s assets would complement CNPC’s already substantial presence in Kazakhstan. CNPC has already built a pipeline pumping Kazakh crude to energy-starved China.
