From Caijing Magazine:
This has been the busiest spring ever for the international affairs department at China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), where a sense of achievement brightens the daily bustle at the company’s new headquarters in Beijing.
In recent months, the department has sponsored a conference every day and a new round of negotiations every few days. For example, it helped arrange an agreement February 17 in which China will lend Russia US$ 25 billion in exchange for 300 million tons of oil over 20 years.
The Sino-Russian deal drew attention from Brazil, Venezuela and other countries eager to secure similar agreements. Brazil hopes to get US$ 10 billion to search for oil in its deep seas, while Venezuela and Angola would like US$ 4 billion and US$ 1 billion, respectively, in contracts with China. Kazakhstan wants US$ 10 billion to buy oil fields from foreign stakeholders and expand domestic infrastructure projects.