Posted on Tumblr on Oct 2.

Yanchang Petroleum has bought Canadian 3k boe/d producer Novus Energy and now plans to keep buying in Canada. Yanchang Petroleum is the HK-listed arm of a conglomerate owned by the government of Shaanxi province (延长石油集团) and which traces its origins to what was possibly the first attempt at oil exploration in China in 1905, initiated by Constantin von Hanneken, a German adviser to Li Hongzhang who turned to the mining industry at the beginning of the century. Canadian takeovers by foreign state-owned companies were to receive increased scrutiny after CNOOC’s purchase of Nexen, but the Novus transaction falls just below the threshold for a government review. Yanchang’s overseas operations include onshore fields in Madagascar it operates since 2010.