As befits a company that flirts with the title of being the world’s largest by market capitalisation, PetroChina has a nice sense of bathos. Last month, Asia’s biggest crude producer was trumpeting its desire to “seize historic opportunities”. On Sunday, the $330bn company agreed to pay $1bn for 45.5 per cent of a Singaporean downstream energy company.

Even assuming a mandatory offer for the remainder of Singapore Petroleum Company proceeds smoothly (not a given: shares on Monday closed below the offer price), this is small beer. PetroChina is light on leverage and the $2.2bn total price tag would barely dent its $13bn cash pile. PetroChina spent more than that on its own refining and marketing operations last year in spite of the fact the unit attracted less than 9 per cent of group capital expenditure. Nor is this a deal to send shivers down the spines of politicians and protectionists, as did CNOOC’s bold but abortive bid for Unocal of the US four years ago. China has since tempered its ambitions, and this deal is more about dipping a toe into a regional hub than about securing resources. Nonetheless, the acquisition potentially gives PetroChina a more palatable offshore platform for international expansion.