Oil reserves targeted by Asian nations

In the rush to snap up the world's remaining oil reserves, Asian companies have been vying to take over a host of foreign energy explorers as well as pushing into Iraq. The hostile £1.87bn takeover bid today from South Korea's national oil company for Dana Petroleum , the Aberdeen-based oil and gas explorer, is a bold step aimed at boosting the energy-poor country's oil reserves. In an attempt to catch up with Asian rivals, KNOC bought Canada's Harvest Energy in October 2009 for $1.7bn (£1.09bn) and Kazakh oil developer Sumbe in December. It has received a $6.5bn war chest from Seoul this year. The deals came after the company lost out to China's largest oil refiner Sinopec in the race to buy UK-listed Addax Petroleum last year. In 2007, Italy's ENI trumped KNOC to snap up UK-based Burren Energy . Chinese and Malaysian state-owned energy groups were among the main winners when Iraq opened up its oil reserves to foreign players in auctions last year. A consortium made up of BP and China National Petroleum Corporation won a contract to develop southern Iraq's giant Rumaila oil field . For China's national oil company, it was the second major deal after a $3bn contract to develop the Ahdab field in Wasit province in south-eastern Iraq, making it the biggest foreign player in the country.