Reports Updated at: 1150 PST, Tuesday, February 17, 2009
BEIJING: China may use its world-biggest foreign exchange reserves to set up a fund focused on expanding overseas energy resource exploration, Chinese media reported on Tuesday.
Separately, the government is looking at other ways to help finance Chinese companies to invest in, or take over, foreign energy firms, the China Oil News and other Chinese newspapers said. These measures are part of an industry development plan for the next three years unveiled at a recent National Energy Work Conference that looked at boosting China's oil and gas output. The China Oil News, run by the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the country's largest oil producer, first reported the plans on Monday. It gave no further details about the fund or when it may be set up.
Global markets and Chinese investors are eager to see how the government plans to use its vast forex reserves, which stood at 1.95 trillion dollars at the end of 2008, up 27.3 percent from the previous year. The China Business News said on Tuesday that with world oil prices off record highs and down to 30-40 dollars a barrel, the fund and the other potential measures would ease financial pressures for Chinese energy firms.
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