Lisbon, Portugal, 11 Jan – The oil assets of Portuguese company Galp Energia in Brazil are of interest to the large Chinese companies in the sector, such as Petrochina, Sinopec and CNOOC, newspaper Diário Económico reported in Lisbon.

The daily said that the interest had been stated to the Portuguese authorities and added that it was particularly relevant at a time when Portugal had asked China to take on Portuguese sovereign debt.

During his recent visit to Lisbon, in October 2010, China’s President, Hu Jintao, publicly admitted that the Chinese authorities would study the possibility of supporting the Portuguese economy.

In December 2010 Portugal’s Finance Minister, Fernando Teixeira dos Santos travelled to China to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Xuren and with the governor of the Bank of China, Zhou Xiaochuan, to once again discuss the issue of Portuguese sovereign debt. (macauhub)