Chinese Oil Gets Big Buzz Ahead of Pac Rim Open

China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has announced that it will approve seven overseas investment projects for the country's three large oil companies.

Emerging Money highlighted China National Offshore Oil Corporation, better known as CNOOC (CEO, quote), has gotten the green light to purchase a 33.3% stake in Uganda's undeveloped exploration areas 1, 2 and 3A from British-based Tullow Oil.

This acquisition is the newest in a long line of purchases for Chinese oil majors that the NDRC is now approving: CEO's buyout of OPTI Canada, Sinopec Group's (SNP, quote) opportunistic partnerships in Latin America, and China National Petroleum — sadly not traded here — buying into oil blocks in the Amu Darya Basin in Afghanistan.

Some of those very deals are now part of the NDRC's investment calendar. China National Petroleum has approval to explore those fields as well as a block in Chad. Subsidiary Petrochina (PTR, quote) has the go-ahead to build two more gas pipeline — one to Hong Kong and the other to Baosteel's Shanghai mills — and develop two onshore domestic oil fields.

And CEO's

Global oil and gas M&A cooled down in 2011 with transaction volumes dropping more than 30%. However, CEO and other China companies have been bucking the trend with almost in $20 billion in deals.