Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Cnooc Ltd.’s purchase of part of four exploration licenses in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico from Statoil ASA, may cost less than $80 million, said Gordon Kwan, the head of energy research at Mirae Asset Securities.

The transaction allows Cnooc to make its first entry into the U.S. crude oil market, which is the world’s largest at 20 million barrels per day versus China’s 8.3 million, Hong Kong- based Kwan said in a note today, without giving details on how he derived the acquisition cost.

Statoil will sell to Cnooc 20 percent of Tucker and 10 percent each of Cobra, Krakatoa and Logan, the Stavanger-based company said yesterday, without giving price details. Cnooc, China’s third-biggest oil company, has changed its acquisition strategy to focus on taking stakes in overseas ventures rather than buying out companies to fight protectionism after failing to buy Unocal Corp. in 2005, according to Chairman Fu Chengyu.

“Unlike Cnooc’s 2005 attempt to take over Unocal, we don’t believe U.S. politics will obstruct the Statoil deal given the small sum involved and the minority role that Cnooc will play,” Kwan said in the note.

Cnooc, the listed arm of China National Offshore Oil Corp., China’s largest offshore oil producer, abandoned an $18.5 billion bid to buy California’s Unocal in 2005 because of opposition from U.S. lawmakers.

Xiao Zongwei, a Cnooc spokesman in Beijing, declined to comment when reached by phone.

Cnooc fell 1.01 percent to HK$11.74 in Hong Kong trading at 11:30 a.m. The stock has risen 64 percent this year, compared with larger rival PetroChina Co.’s 42 percent. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., also known as Sinopec, has gained 43 percent this year.

Chinese Acquisitions

Chinese companies have spent at least $13 billion on oil assets overseas since December after crude fell from a record $147.27 a barrel reached in July 2008.

“We expect Cnooc to acquire more overseas projects going ahead as the firm is trailing sibling rivals PetroChina and Sinopec on the M&A front,” Kwan said.

Cnooc, which gets more than 70 percent of its production from offshore fields in the country, is boosting output to benefit from a rebound in prices as China’s economy recover. It aims to produce 225 million to 231 million barrels of oil equivalent this year.

“There is no meaningful impact on near term production or reserves for Cnooc for at least four years because these purchases are merely the rights to conduct deepwater exploration in the U.S.,” Kwan said in the note today.

-- Chua Baizhen. Editors: Ang Bee Lin, Raj Rajendran.

To contact the reporter for this story: Baizhen Chua in Beijing at bchua14@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 4, 2009 23:04 EST