There's the recent unsuccessful bid by a Chinese oil company for the US company Unocal.
Even so, several multinationals, among them Unocal, an American company, have already invested in Bangladeshi gas.
In recent years, Unocal's average return on capital employed has been higher than ChevronTexaco's, 9.4% vs. 8.7%.
ChevronTexaco is buying Unocal at a prime time, considering that the riskiest stage of development in Azerbaijan--exploration--is over.
By consolidating GOM operations, ChevronTexaco will be able to reduce operating costs while leveraging Unocal's proprietary geologic data.
Last September a federal court ruled Unocal could be liable for abuses if it "aided and abetted" them.
The gas company signed an agreement with the French company Total and American Unocal to build the pipeline.
In the past two years, revenue has tripled and the company has such clients as Pfizer , Unocal and Boeing .
The decision will encourage exiles bringing similar cases against Total, Unocal's partner in the venture, in Belgium and France.
ECONOMIST: The rising costs of doing business with a loathsome regime
You backed Boone Pickens in trying to take over Gulf Oil and Unocal.
Or when China's CNOOC oil company put up a bid for the American oil firm Unocal a year earlier?
But as Unocal's Azerbaijan investments come on line and generate profit, those returns will be even juicier, upgrading ChevronTexaco's overall earnings quality.
China's winning flush hinged on three cards the multinational giants -- Amoco, Texaco and a Unocal-Petronas venture -- just could not match.
Bhappu started his pursuit of Molycorp in 2005, after Chevron purchased Unocal.
In 2005 CNOOC, a Chinese oil firm, withdrew a bid for Unocal, a Californian producer, after American politicians kicked up a stink.
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State-owned oil company Cnooc Ltd. ran into a firestorm when it tried to buy Unocal Corp. in 2005, to name but one example.
Unocal studied the problem extensively and concluded that, with the exception of Colombia, rebels in war-torn countries don't destroy key elements of the economic infrastructure.
The second most interesting assets appear to be in Thailand, where the combined Unocal and ChevronTexaco operations will make it that nation's premier energy company.
Bulgheroni outsmarted Unocal, which was competing for the bid and sued Bridas, but the company, led by Chairman Alejandro Bulgheroni, won in the courtroom.
Yergin says Americans are just now waking up to China's growing appetite for oil, as illustrated by the Chinese company CNOOC's aborted bid for Unocal.
Unocal studied the problem extensively and concluded that, with the exception of Colombia, rebels in war-torn countries rarely destroy key elements of the economic infrastructure.
But Chinese firms have also had trouble investing in the U.S., most famously in 2005 when Cnooc pulled its effort to acquire Unocal amid fierce political opposition.
Ten oil companies--led by BP (nyse: BP - news - people )with a 34% stake and Unocal with 10.3%--are jointly developing major fields there.
The biggest piece on the block is Unocal's wholly owned subsidiary Pure Resources, which develops oil and gas in southwest U.S. basins like the San Juan and Permian.
But as recent events with CNOOC's bid for Unocal and Haier's bid for appliance giant Maytag have shown, it's not always easy to break into the Western market.
And even after the oil sectors recent rebound, stocks like Conoco (25, COC) and Unocal Corp.(36, UCL), at six times cash flow (net plus depreciation), are historically cheap.
Unocal says the export of gas from its Bibiyana gas field in Bangladesh's Sylhet region will bring in an estimated 3.7 billion US dollars in revenue for Dhaka.
On December 13th, Unocal, an American energy firm with a stake in a gas pipeline in the country, agreed in principle to settle several lawsuits related to that investment.
ECONOMIST: The rising costs of doing business with a loathsome regime
Mr Hossain's comments followed Unocal's proposal to construct a pipeline connecting its gas fields in eastern Bangladesh to the Indian capital Delhi and the western Indian state of Gujarat.
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