Will a cash-infused PetroChina transform the world oil market and ease spiraling crude prices?
That remains to be seen. It is true that if PetroChina were successful in producing more oil for the fast-growing Chinese economy, it would ease the stress on the world market. But PetroChina faces a lot of pressures that its rivals in capitalist countries, like ExxonMobil, don’t have to worry about. One of the most significant: Chinese government price controls keep gasoline prices artificially low, so PetroChina’s refinery business loses tens of millions of dollars per day. It is not clear whether the company has the strength to carry out its big plans. What does Warren Buffett think of PetroChina? The legendary billionaire investor once owned 11 percent of PetroChina through shares traded on the Hong Kong market, but this summer and fall, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway systematically sold its entire stake. It had appreciated to $3.3 billion, up from an original $488 million. Bad market timing for Buffett? Perhaps. But Buffett had said that the market had become “too hot,” and though h
