OREANDA-NEWS. August 24, 2012. Perhaps because August is traditionally a slow news month, CNOOC's USD15.1-billion (12.3 billion euros) bid late last month to buy the Canadian oil and gas independent Nexen Inc has generated a tremendous, some might say inordinate, amount of copy in the Western media. Since the announcement, the Wall Street Journal alone has run more than 80 items focusing on the proposed acquisition, its nitty-gritty aspects and its wider implications.

Under the deal, CNOOC, which is China's top offshore oil and gas developer, would acquire Nexen's leases in strategic oil and gas production areas such as the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, thereby raising the geopolitical stakes.

Surely, CNOOC was not expecting to fly under the radar on this one. But the speed, breadth and depth of the emerging political opposition in the US should give the Chinese government concern. Notwithstanding the August recess, members of the US Congress, ranging from a firebrand Republican conservative to two progressive East Coast Democrats, have already spoken out against the acquisition.

Shortly after the bid announcement, Senator Chuck Schumer, a senior Democrat from New York, wrote in a letter to the US Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, in his capacity as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Investments in the US, which has approval rights over the deal, that the committee should withhold approval of the CNOOC bid until "China's government has made tangible, enforceable commitments to ensure US companies reciprocal treatment". His letter was later joined by a similar one from Congressman Ed Markey, also a Democrat.

And Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma voiced opposition to the takeover, citing national security concerns. It is only a matter of time before more members of Congress, whether due to genuine national security concerns, or to secure reciprocal access for US companies in China, or to score political points with voters, begin to follow suit. Notably, not one US politician has yet spoken out in favor of CNOOC.

Which raises the question: despite CNOOC's best efforts, is CNOOC-Nexen destined to go the way of CNOOC-Unocal?

For those with short memories, in 2005 CNOOC made a play for the US energy company Unocal. The takeover bid met with so much opposition in Congress, which even passed a resolution urging the Bush administration to block the takeover by an overwhelming margin, that CNOOC withdrew it before a review by the Committee on Foreign Investments in the US had even begun.

As CNOOC gears up for round two with US politicians and regulators, this time over Nexen, many commentators have cited CNOOC's "lessons learned" from Unocal as evidence that things will go more smoothly this time. However, there is compelling evidence to the contrary.