U.S. President Donald Trump will visit China November 8-10 for a series of bilateral and commercial events, including a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.On that trip, President Trump’s first visit to China—the country that he has repeatedly criticized for trade practices and the way it has handled relations with North Korea—the administration will be taking some 40 U.S. companies on a trade mission to forge deals and discuss Chinese investments in the U.S.One of the biggest deals up for discussion is an investment of around $7 billion by an alliance including China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec, for an oil pipeline in Texas and an expansion of an oil storage facility in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Bloomberg reports, quoting a person familiar with the proposal. The deal is likely to be in the form of a non-binding memorandum of understanding, not a definitive contract. According to insiders, the investment will still need a final go-ahead by both the U.S. administration and China.
Sinopec, in partnership with ArcLight Capital Partners—a Boston-based private equity firm focused on energy infrastructure assets—and with Connecticut-based Freepoint Commodities, is expected to propose a project for building a 700-mile-long pipeline from the Permian to the Gulf Coast and a storage facility at the Coast, according to Bloomberg’s source. Sinopec also wants to expand an oil storage facility on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.