TIMELINE: Deals, delays as China oil majors look overseas

(For related story see PETROCHINA/ or [ID:nSIN335305])

May 25 (Reuters) - Asia's largest oil and gas producer, PetroChina (0857.HK) said on Monday it would buy a 45.5 percent stake in Singapore Petroleum Company (SPC) for $1.02 billion, its first overseas acquisition of a public company.

Awash with capital and facing strong domestic fuel demand, Chinese energy firms have been encouraged by Beijing to take advantage of the financial crisis to make overseas acquisitions.

However the difficulty of closing foreign deals has meant the most significant have not been takeovers but long-term supply agreements for liquid natural gas (LNG) and crude oil, often with state oil firms in cash-strapped but energy-rich nations.

For a TIMELINE on China's loan-for-oil deals in 2009 see CHINA/OIL or [ID:nHKG58516]

Here is a timeline tracing the fortunes of China oil majors and their overseas activities in 2009.

* Jan 8 - CNPC says its overseas operations produced a record 62.2 million tonnes, or 1.24 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil in 2008 -- an increase of 3.3 percent from 2007, but a growth rate lower than the 10.3 percent in 2007, and sharply down from the 52.4 percent in 2006. [ID:nPEK84489]

* Feb 18 - China and Brazil agree a $10 billion loan-for-oil deal. Brazilian state-owned oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA) (PBR.N) will provide between 100,000 and 160,000 barrels of oil per day, at market prices, to CNPC and to Sinopec. [ID:nN19512811]

* Feb 20 - Japan's top refiner, Nippon Oil Corp (5001.T), says it is delaying a deal that gives CNPC nearly half of its Osaka refinery from initally-planned April to June or later, as global demand and profit margins slump.

The deal announced last May would be the first Chinese refining investment in Japan and the third globally; giving China's No. 2 refiner a 49 percent stake in the 115,000 barrel per day facility. [ID:nT162322]

* Feb 23 - ExxonMobil (XOM.N) agrees to sell PetroChina two million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year for 20-25 years from the Australian Gorgon project. The deal would be the second Gorgon LNG contract for China's top oil firm, following a 20-year deal with Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), also for two million tonnes per year. [ID:nPEK368295]

* Feb 26 - CNPC launches a friendly $427 million offer for small Canadian oil firm Verenex Energy Inc (VNX.TO) to give the state-owned oil company a stake in a promising Libyan oil concession. [ID:nBNG440478] and [ID:nN05474367]

* March 11 - Iraq inaugurates a $3 billion oil project with CNPC, activating the country's first major oil deal with a foreign firm since the fall of Saddam Hussein. [ID:nLB369659]

* March 13 - PetroChina announces it will set up a joint venture refinery with Venezuela in 2009. PetroChina's stake will be more than 51 percent, while the heavy oil for the refinery would be supplied by Venezuela. [ID:nPEK67570]

* March 25: Petrochina Q4 net profit falls 39 percent. Its President, Zhou Jiping, says lower crude oil prices have whetted the firm's appetite for acquisitions, and could team up with BP, Shell and Exxon Mobil on overseas projects. [ID:nHKG371850]

* April 17: $5 billion loan-for-oil between China's top oil firm the Chinese National Petroleum Company (CNPC) and crisis-hit Kazakhstan's state oil company. [ID:nPEK308883]