Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Explaining Energy Resource Cooperation: Shale Gas, Chinese Investment, And The Changing Calculus Of U.S. Energy Security, Douglas B. Atkinson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In June of 2005, the relatively small and generally insignificant energy company Unocal became the focus of a fierce bidding war. China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) made the first move, outbidding the American firm Chevron. Accepting the CNOOC bid looked like an obvious choice for Unocal since it was almost $1.5 billion dollars more. However, as it became increasingly clear that policy makers in Washington would not allow the deal to go through CNOOC withdrew its bid and Unocal had little option but to accept Chevron’s offer.

Washington’s opposition seemed to be an overreaction to a deal that would …