China's CNOOC is in talks to with StatoilHydro over a deal for five prospects in the US Gulf of Mexico, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing a source familiar with the situation. Such a deal would open up the crude oil reserves in the US Gulf to China for the first time.

StatoilHydro, Norway’s biggest oil producer, has been planning to sell stakes in some of its Gulf of Mexico leases as the company moves forward with drilling plans. The Stavanger-based company, which last year opened a data room for prospective buyers to look at information on available properties, will look to remain majority owner of any projects for which it brings in partners, said Kjersti Torgersen, a spokeswoman for StatoilHydro in Houston.

Oil companies typically offer partnerships in large exploration projects to help pay for drilling and spread risk. Torgersen declined to comment on a Dow Jones Newswires report earlier on Friday that China’s CNOOC Ltd. is in talks to buy any US Gulf assets from StatoilHydro. “It’s very common in the Gulf of Mexico to farm down some interest and still keep the operatorship,” Torgersen said today in a telephone interview. “We’re definitely here to stay.”

CNOOC, China’s largest offshore oil producer, abandoned an $18.5 billion bid to buy California’s Unocal Corp. in 2005 because of opposition from U.S. lawmakers.

The StatoilHydro lease interests that may be sold were acquired in 2007 and 2008, Torgersen said. StatoilHydro spent about $11 billion to re-establish a US presence after returning to the country in 2005, Oivind Reinertsen, president of the company’s US and Mexico operations, said in a May interview.

StatoilHydro has an “extensive” drilling operation planned in the Gulf over the next five years, Torgersen said.

The only US Gulf deal StatoilHydro has made since opening the data room last year was an agreement with Ecopetrol, Colombia’s state-run oil company. Ecopetrol agreed in December to initially invest about $160 million in a venture to jointly explore for oil and natural gas with StatoilHydro in the Gulf.

StatoilHydro’s strategy in the Gulf is to focus on deepwater projects, according to Torgersen. The company has been among the most active bidders in sales of Gulf drilling rights by the U.S. Minerals Management Service since 2007. It had the largest bids in August 2008 and January 2009 auctions by the MMS and won the most leases in an August 2007 auction. “We’re the fourth-largest leaseholder in the Gulf of Mexico,” Torgersen said. “It’s definitely a core area for us.”

StatoilHydro more than doubled its US output this year after the Thunder Hawk and Tahiti fields started producing. The Norwegian company also holds stakes in the Big Foot and Caesar Tonga deposits in the US Gulf, among other projects.

Xiao Zongwei, CNOOC’s board secretary, declined to comment, according to Dow Jones. The report cited an unidentified person familiar with the talks.

Source: Bloomberg & Reuters