Case focuses on transfer of strategic drilling interests in Gulf of Mexico.
The Obama administration decided to allow China to take over strategic drilling interests in the Gulf of Mexico in a move that will bring riches to several of the president’s financial supporters, according to claims made in a lawsuit over the issue.
The allegations are made as part of a pending Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch against the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
“Obama influence peddlers are evidently at it again,” the organization explained in a report on its work. “This time, a very curious and potentially threatening decision to approve a deal that puts China in control of drilling interests in the Gulf of Mexico [also] puts cash in the pockets of Obama campaign donors and bundlers.”
The issue involves the acquisition by the government-owned Chinese National Offshore Oil Corp. of the Canada-based Nexen Inc., which holds rights to drilling in northern Canada as well as the Gulf of Mexico.
Because of Nexen’s holdings in the Gulf of Mexico, the takeover required approval from the federal Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which includes the Treasury, Department of Homeland Security, Commerce, Defense, State, and Energy secretaries as well as the attorney general and U.S. trade representatives – all Obama patrons.
That approval was given, producing a secondary effect because the Chinese company, “owned by the Chinese government and managed by Communist Party officials,” paid a 60 percent premium over the trading value of Nexen.
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