A private Chinese company, Lanzhou Haimo Technologies, signed a deal with Houston-based Carrizo Oil & Gas to buy into the American company's shale oil and gas assets in Colorado. It marks the first investment by a private Chinese company into shale oil and gas exploration in an American oil field.

Under the agreement, signed in Beijing, the Chinese company will pay 27.5 million dollars for a 14.29 percent stake in Carrizo's Niobrara shale oil and gas assets. These include six thousand acres located primarily in Weld and Adams Counties in Colorado, as well as oil and gas wells and associated infrastructure.

Haimo Technologies is a world leader in well testing services, and is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's Growth Enterprise Market. It's stocks rose 3.7 percent today. NASDAQ-listed Carrizo holds 60 thousand acres in the Niobrara basin, and produces 1,850 barrels of oil-equivalent per day.