Energy Business Roundup: Cnooc-Nexen Deal Causes Senator’s IRE, TransCanada Ready To ROLL

China’s Cnooc Limited (NYSE:CEO) remains confident of receiving an approval for its $15.1 billion proposed acquisition of Canada’s Nexen, Inc. (NYSE:NXY), but Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is quite unhappy about it. The Senator wants Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to use the deal as leverage to open Chinese markets for American companies, remarking that, “It’s about time we played a little hardball.” Later on Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained an emergency court order that freezes the assets of traders using accounts in Hong Kong and Singapore to obtain illegal profits by trading in advance of the public announcement earlier this week, that Cnooc would purchase Nexen.

Chevron Corporation’s (NYSE:CVX) second quarter results revealed that total production dropped by 2.6 percent, and that benchmark oil prices decreased by approximately 9 percent. Upstream production business reported an 18 percent profit slide to $5.6 billion, pointing to normal field declines and the shut-in of the Frade Field in Brazil. Downstream refining division profit rose 80 percent to $1.88 billion, which reflects the sale of South Korean assets and higher margins on gasoline, along with other fuels.

TransCanada Corporation (NYSE:TRP) is ready to start construction on its 485-mile Gulf Coast Project oil pipeline in a few weeks, after getting a final okay from United States authorities. Chief executive Russ Girling says that “TransCanada is now poised to put ~4,000 Americans to work constructing the $2.3B pipeline that will be built in three distinct ‘spreads’ or sections.”

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