China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the nation's biggest oil producer, said Wednesday it had secured a 30 billion dollar credit line from a state-owned bank to fund its overseas expansion.
CNPC, the parent of listed PetroChina, on Tuesday signed an agreement with China Development Bank, one of the country's three policy lenders, to receive the credit over the next five years at a discounted interest rate, the company said in a statement.
The deal will have a "significant impact" on the implementation of the "go global" strategy of CNPC and help ensure the country's energy security, the company said in the statement on its website.
It is also aimed at improving the competitiveness and influence of China Development Bank's international financing business, the statement added.
China Development Bank had previously helped fund CNPC's overseas activities including oil deals with Russia and Venezuela, its Central Asian natural gas pipeline project and the acquisition of Petroleum Kazakhstan, CNPC said.
China's government-backed oil companies are seizing on the economic crisis and the accompanying low asset prices to make landmark overseas acquisitions, in a bid to feed the country's growing economy.
It was announced in late August that PetroChina had agreed to purchase a 60-percent stake in two oil sands projects in Western Canada for 1.9 billion dollars.
In June, China's Sinopec, a subsidiary of China Petrochemical Corporation, agreed to purchase Swiss oil exploration firm Addax Petroleum for 7.2 billion dollars in the largest ever Chinese offshore acquisition in the oil industry.
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