20091208

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - China is ready to invest $50 billion to acquire 6 billion barrels of Nigerian oil reserves in a proposal made in June, a sum which could help the OPEC member fund its joint ventures with oil majors, a top adviser said.

Several state-run Chinese oil firms, including CNOOC, are in talks with Nigeria about Beijing's search for proven oil reserves, which include incursions into some oil blocks held by Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron.

"The application was to acquire reserves of 6 billion barrels which we are currently discussing. They are prepared to spend as much as $50 billion," Emmanuel Egbogah, Nigeria's presidential adviser on energy, told reporters in New Delhi where he is attending a conference.

Nigeria's junior oil minister said in September China would not be given all the reserves it was seeking, but Nigeria's state-run NNPC could sell stakes in joint ventures with existing oil partners if Beijing offered the right price.

Shell, which is one of several Western oil firms that operates in Nigeria through joint ventures with NNPC, has vowed to fight any possible efforts by the Nigerian government to hand control of its fields to Chinese oil companies.

Industry executives say Nigeria is using the spectre of a Chinese bid for its oil as leverage in difficult contract renewal negotiations with its existing Western oil partners.

Nigeria has had difficulty paying its share in its joint ventures with oil majors, forcing Africa's biggest energy producer to consider alternative ways to bridge the gap.

Egbogah said its funding shortfall has steadily increased to $6 billion from a few million dollars when joint venture arrangements were created in the early 1970s.