NEW YORK/OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian authorities approved the acquisition of Nexen Inc by China’s CNOOC Ltd on Friday, but said they would block virtually all new attempts by foreign state-owned enterprises to buy controlling assets in the country’s vast oil sands.

The ruling, closely watched by investors and politicians alike, followed months of heated debate over how much of Canada’s energy sector, and especially its oil sands, should be absorbed by companies run by other governments.

NEW YORK/OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian authorities have approved the acquisition of Nexen Inc by China’s CNOOC Ltd, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

The ruling follows months of debate over how much of Canada’s energy sector should be controlled foreign oil companies. Investors have watched developments closely.

NEW YORK/OTTAWA, Dec 7 (Reuters) – Canadian authorities have
approved the acquisition of Nexen Inc by China’s CNOOC
Ltd, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

The ruling follows months of debate over how much of
Canada’s energy sector should be controlled foreign oil
companies. Investors have watched developments closely.

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Shares of Nexen Inc and Progress Energy Resources Corp tumbled after the Canadian government scheduled a media briefing on Friday amid expectations that it would announce decisions on high-profile bids by China’s CNOOC Ltd and Malaysia’s Petronas to buy the energy producers.

The rulings would follow months of debate over how much of Canada’s energy sector should be controlled foreign oil companies. Investors have watched closely developments. The government is also expected to release broad new guidelines on acquisitions of Canadian companies by state-owned enterprises,

OTTAWA, Dec 7 (Reuters) – A powerful Canadian cabinet
committee which has been studying CNOOC Ltd’s $15.1
billion bid for domestic oil producer Nexen Inc met on
Friday as the deadline loomed for Canada’s ruling on the
proposed Chinese takeover.

Ministers who attended the morning meeting offered no clues
on their agenda, or on whether CNOOC had been under discussion.
But the government has until the end of Dec. 10 to deliver its
verdict on a bid that triggered a rare divide inside the ruling
Conservative Party, where some legislators are wary of letting a
Chinese state-owned enterprise buy Canadian energy assets.

OTTAWA, Dec 7 (Reuters) – Canada is restarting its search
for new fighter jets but could still choose Lockheed Martin
Corp’s F-35, which Ottawa had initially said it would
buy before losing enthusiasm as cost estimates soared, a
government source told Reuters on Friday.

An independent four-man panel will study the F-35, Boeing
Co’s F-18 Super Hornet and the EADS Eurofighter
and report back to Ottawa by early 2013, the source said. The
panel, which could also look at other fighters, will not make a
recommendation on which jet to buy.

OTTAWA, Dec 6 (Reuters) – High household debt and a heated
housing market remain the biggest domestic threats to Canada’s
financial system, the Bank of Canada said on Thursday, despite
tighter mortgage rules introduced by the government in July.

“The most important domestic risk to financial stability in
Canada continues to stem from the elevated level of household
indebtedness and stretched valuations in some segments of the
housing market,” the central bank said in its semi-annual
Financial System Review.

OTTAWA, Dec 5 (Reuters) – Canada will announce eagerly
awaited guidelines to clarify its rules for approving foreign
investments “fairly soon,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on
Wednesday, as suspense builds around the government’s reviews of
two bids for Canadian energy producers.

The Conservative government has promised for two months that
it would issue the guidelines soon and that it planned to do so
at about the same time as it announces its decisions on takeover
proposals by Chinese and Malaysian bidders.

OTTAWA, Nov 29 (Reuters) – A drop in exports helped push
Canada’s current account deficit close to a record high in the
third quarter, a development that analysts said sends a signal
that the Canadian dollar is too strong.

The deficit rose 2.9 percent from the second quarter to
C$18.91 billion ($19.10 billion), Statistics Canada said on
Thursday. Though smaller than the C$19.20 billion gap expected
by analysts, it was the second largest on record after the
C$19.43 billion posted for the third quarter of 2010.

OTTAWA (Reuters) – With deadlines fast approaching, Canada is still weighing two proposed foreign takeovers of domestic energy companies, but a top minister offered no clues on Tuesday as to when or how the government would announce the hotly debated decisions.

The government says it will unveil new policy guidelines on foreign investment at about the same time it announces verdicts on the proposed takeovers: A bid by China’s CNOOC Ltd for Nexen Inc and a bid by Malaysia’s Petronas for Progress Energy Resources Corp.