China’s CNOOC Ltd has agreed to buy minority stakes in four exploration licenses in the Gulf of Mexico from a Norwegian oil and gas producer, the first time for a Chinese company to tap reserves in the US waters.

CNOOC will buy 10 to 20 percent share in the exploration areas from Statoil ASA, the Norwegian company said late Wednesday in its quarterly results announcement. (Shanghai Daily)

For most Americans who are familiar with CNOOC, the association is probably a negative one, stemming from the Chinese oil company’s attempt to purchase (offshore) assets from U.S. oil company UNOCAL. That deal ended in a very ugly way, stymied primarily because of U.S. government xenophobia, probably with a bit o’ racism as well (let’s call it what it was).

So after all of that, CNOOC may actually end up with some minor exploration licenses in the Gulf of Mexico. Let’s hope nothing goes wrong this time.

Analysts said they don’t believe US politics to obstruct the latest Statoil deal given the small sums involved and the minority role that CNOOC will play as Statoil will remain the projects’ operator.

What the article doesn’t say: Norwegians OK, Chinese not so much.

I can’t help but wonder what would happen if CNOOC purchased the entire project from Statoil, or if they somehow took over a company that had such rights. Would we see nutcase Congressmen in Washington spew xenophobic crap again like they did in 2005? Would it matter if they were challenged and asked why Norwegians were acceptable as foreign owners of such rights but Chinese were not?