| China targets 9 countries for oil investment |
BEIJING, Mar. 1 (AP) -- China stepped up efforts Thursday to secure access to foreign energy, adding nine oil- and gas-producing countries to a list of economies where its companies are offered incentives to invest.
Chinese companies can get tax breaks or other incentives for investing in oil and gas industries in Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Morocco, Libya, Niger, Norway, Ecuador and Bolivia, according to an announcement by China's top planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission.
China's state-owned petroleum industry has spent billions of dollars on oil and gas ventures around the world, trying to increase supplies as reliance on imported energy soars.
The NDRC's announcement gave no details of the incentives offered to Chinese companies.
The announcement expanded on lists released in 2004 and 2005 that included more than 20 countries where Chinese companies are encouraged to invest in oil and gas industries. Most of those countries are not major petroleum producers.
China's major oil companies already operate in most of the countries on the new list.
On Tuesday, Canada's TG World Energy Corp. said oil had flowed from a well drilled in Niger by a Chinese partner, a unit of state-owned Chinia National Petroleum Corp. But it said the well was not capable of commercial production.
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