Nexen Inc. logo at the company's annual meeting in Calgary, April 25, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
November 07, 2012 - 1:12 PM
OTTAWA - The opportunity for Ottawa to undertake a formal national security review of the CNOOC-Nexen proposal has expired without a challenge.
New federal regulations allow for a national security review into any foreign takeover and critics of the deal have raised concerns about foreign control of Canada's oil.
But the window for a review of the $15.1-billion takeover by a state-controlled Chinese oil firm has already closed —with no mention of anything that may have triggered a national security concern.
Experts say the ongoing net benefits test of the deal is broad enough that national security could still be considered in the wider context of whether the takeover is good for Canada.
But several government sources say that while the deal remains controversial among decision-makers, national security does not figure prominently in internal debates.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2012