Six years after being rebuffed by Washington on its Unocal acquisition and shortly after fellow Chinese oil producer PetroChina saw a big gas deal with Encana fall apart, Cnooc has targeted a North American energy deal that should go smoothly. Opti Canada was in bankruptcy and its price is just $34m cash plus $2bn in debt, raising Cnooc’s proven reserves by 5 per cent.

The low cash outlay aside, China’s largest overseas oil producer appears to be getting quite a bargain, paying about $1 a barrel. This is low not only compared with conventional oil producers but also with recent oil sands transactions done at almost twice the price. But it reflects risks that have deterred others. Opti’s only producing property, a 35 per cent stake in Long Lake, operated by Nexen, produces below capacity amid concerns over the quality of its bitumen (the laboriously extracted gunk that is upgraded to crude oil).

Whether or not it is good value, Chinese oil producers eager to build their overseas holdings are acting opportunistically by targeting oil sands, just as they have invested in countries with questionable human rights records, such as Sudan. Western companies, including Shell, have come under pressure over oil sands’ awful environmental footprint. And, even amid lofty oil prices, big upfront capital investments and break-even costs above $40 a barrel make oil sands risky. Chinese executives have the advantage, if that is what one can call it, of caring less about either do-gooders or shareholders who might later fault deals on their economic merits.