Will we be paying with Yuan?

The Chinese oil company CNOOC has made a bid to Purchase Unocal. They claim it would make no difference to us here as the oil & gas products will still be sold here. I don't buy it (pardon the pun). They are purchasing Unocal because of the oil & gas reserves the company has, many in Asian oilfields. China has a growing need for oil to fuel it's economic growth. In addition, I don't feel it is a good idea to have a company from a hostile foreign country in control of a strategic asset such as Unocal. It will be interesting to watch this play out. The CNOOC bid was not a great deal higher than Chevron's. That makes me wonder if they are expecting Chevron to up their offer, or if they are throwing out a bid to make the US Government take a stand. If the CNOOC bid is denied by the US regulators, the Chinese will make a lot of noise over it. It could be that their bid, while making sense in light of their needs, is more about playing politics than buying an oil company.

"May you live in interesting times"
-old Chinese curse