A little-known Chinese real-estate developer says it is scooping up oil assets in West Texas as part of a billion-dollar deal that underscores China’s keen interest in the U.S. energy patch. Shanghai-listed Yantai Xinchao Industry Co. said in a securities filing Saturday that it was acquiring oil properties in West Texas as part of a deal to buy an investment company called Ningbo Dingliang Huitong Equity Investment Center. Yantai Xinchao valued the overall deal at 8.3 billion yuan ($1.3 billion). The weekend filing said the oil properties were being acquired from two U.S. companies, Tall City Exploration LLC and Plymouth Petroleum LLC. The companies didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday. Plymouth Petroleum is owned by Boston-based ArcLight Capital Partners LLC, a private-equity firm. Tall City is backed by another, Denham Capital Management LP. Bankers and other industry insiders say a host of Chinese firms—including some whose […]