Foreign companies will struggle to invest in Chinese oil and gas production for the foreseeable future because of complex bureaucracy and competition from powerful government-owned energy companies, the head of an Australian oil company said.

The company, Sydney-based Roc Oil Co. Ltd., bought 24.5 percent of two producing oil fields in China's Bohai Bay in June from Apache Corp. for $260 million. That made it China's third- largest foreign-owned oil producer, after ConocoPhillips and Kerr- McGee Corp., Roc's chief executive officer, John Doran said.

With the tripling of oil prices since 2002, companies are crowding into many of the less-explored regions in the world, Doran said. China wants its companies to secure energy resources at home and abroad to supply the world's fastest-growing major economy.

PetroChina, the nation's biggest oil company, owns 51 percent of the Zhao Dong permit in Bohai Bay. New XCL-China LLC, a unit of Lafayette, Louisiana-based XCL Ltd., owns 24.5 percent.

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Source:佚名