Chinese firm surpasses Exxon in oil production

NEW YORK (AP) -- A big shift is happening in Big Oil: an American giant now ranks behind a Chinese upstart....

China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has emerged as the frontrunner to take over Iraq’s West Qurna-1 oilfield from Exxon Mobil, a move that would diminish Western oil influence in Iraq a decade after the U.S.-led invasion. U.S. oil major Exxon is giving up its stake in the giant southern oilfield after clashing with the central government in Baghdad over exploration contracts it had signed with the autonomous Kurdistan region in the north.

Big shippers, including Imperial Oil Ltd, Exxon Mobil Corp, Suncor Energy Inc, Marathon Petroleum Corp and Phillips 66, have all filed motions with the regulator in protest CALGARY — Enbridge Inc and its crude oil pipeline customers are battling over a plan by the company to try to cut the over-booking of capacity on the massive export network that has played a role in the deep discounting of Canadian crude prices.

Barely five years ago, when Canadian pipelines could do no wrong and Canada was the darling of the United States’ oil industry, a joke making the rounds at Enbridge Inc.’s expanding Houston base was that Hugo Chavez had been named Employee Of The Year. “He’s done a lot to help us,” Stephen Letwin, who was in charge of Calgary-based Enbridge’s U.S. operation, said at the time.

North America's oil and gas production boom will allow the continent to become a net energy exporter by 2025, according to the U.S. edition of Exxon's annual forecast. But this assumes expanded production in Canada's controversial oil sands. Many argue that their development environmentally hazardous.

Trefis submits: Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) is a leading independent oil and gas exploration and production company in the world and competes with other major oil companies like Anadarko (NYSE: APC) BP (NYSE:BP), Chevron (NYSE:CVX

Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Australia’s second-biggest oil producer, said it’s in talks with companies for a potential partnership to enter Canada’s natural gas industry to tap rising Asian demand. “It’s natural in an area that has the sort of hydrocarbon resource that Canada does that Woodside is in there talking to people,” Chief Executive Officer Peter Coleman said Thursday in an interview in Sydney, declining to name any companies.

Exxon Mobil Corp.’s plans to develop a US$14-billion underwater oil field off Newfoundland’s coast allows the world’s biggest energy company to hedge against discounted crude from Canada’s oil sands. “The better pricing is definitely an issue,” Brian Youngberg, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co. said by phone from St. Louis on Jan. 4. “While things could change in the time it takes to finish the project, it’s a great way for Exxon to hedge their pricing.”