HONG KONG (Bloomberg) -- China National Petroleum Corp. said the country’s biggest oil producer has “nothing to disclose at the moment” on whether it’s in talks to acquire a stake in Repsol YPF SA’s Argentine unit.

“As of now, there are no compulsory regulatory requirements for us to disclose information on any specific project,” CNPC Vice President Zhou Jiping said at a media briefing in Hong Kong on Saturday. CNPC had proposed offering $13 billion to $14.5 billion for a controlling stake in the YPF SA unit, three people familiar with the matter said in July, which will make the transaction China’s largest overseas takeover.
Chinese companies have spent at least $13 billion on oil assets overseas since December, including purchases in Singapore, Syria and Kazakhstan, to take advantage of lower valuations after commodity prices slumped. Acquiring the Repsol unit would give CNPC’s Hong Kong-listed unit PetroChina Co. access to reserves and refining assets in South America.
“A deal with Repsol for YPF could be transformational,” said Gordon Kwan, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities in Hong Kong. “A successful deal could help support long-term reserves and production growth amidst rising oil prices.”
China, whose $2.1 trillion in currency reserves are the world’s biggest, has stepped up acquisitions of overseas resources to secure supplies after the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index fell 36 percent last year, the most since at least 1957. Concern over its growing influence and opposition from Australia and the U.S. haven’t stopped China from buying assets abroad as the nation’s $585 billion economic stimulus spurs demand.
-----------South America
China’s oil consumption doubled to 8 million barrels a day last year from 4.2 million barrels in 1998, according to BP Plc’s Statistical Review. The world’s third-largest economy imported 3.6 million barrels of oil a day in 2008, meeting about 45 percent of its needs. YPF, 84 percent-owned by Repsol, has proven oil reserves of 580 million barrels, Kwan said.
South America is one of CNPC’s five “strategic” global regions for its international oil and gas business, Zhou said.
“If opportunities arise in South America that meet the company’s strategic needs and can create synergy, CNPC will pursue the opportunity very actively,” Zhou told reporters.
-----------Repsol
Repsol Chief Executive Officer Antonio Brufau wants to sell a stake in YPF to help raise funds for investing on new exploration projects in Brazil’s offshore Santos Basin and regions other than Argentina as the company tries to reverse four years of declining production.
Last year, Repsol delayed a public offering of a stake in YPF amid financial-market turmoil. The company had planned to use the proceeds to expand operations in Libya, Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico. Earlier, it agreed to sell a 15 percent interest in YPF for $2.2 billion to Argentine investor Enrique Eskenazi, who has an option to buy an additional 10 percent.
Any agreement on the sale of a stake in YPF would have to be approved by Argentine authorities and by Eskenazi, Repsol said on July 30.
--------------Government opposition
Bids for resources by China have been met with opposition from lawmakers in Australia.
Melbourne-based Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third-largest mining company, abandoned a tie-up with Aluminum Corp. of China, or Chinalco, in June. The arrest of four Rio executives in July has strained relations between the countries. They were formally arrested on charges of trade secrets infringement and bribery, China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate said on Aug. 11, according to a report by Xinhua news agency.
Cnooc Ltd., 66 percent-controlled by state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp., abandoned its cash offer for Unocal Corp. in 2005 after being outmaneuvered by Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. oil company. Chevron purchased the El Segundo, California-based oil and gas producer for $17.8 billion amid political opposition to the Chinese approach in Washington.
Other deals in recent months involving Chinese state- controlled oil companies include China Petrochemical Corp.’s purchase of Addax Petroleum Corp. in June for $7.2 billion to gain reserves in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and West Africa.