CNOOC could ask Beijing to reduce stake

The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is willing to ask the government to reduce its majority stake in the company to remove a political obstacle to overseas acquisitions, a report said yesterday.

CNOOC chief executive Fu Chengyu (傅成玉) said a cut in the government's holding would help address claims that CNOOC was an instrument of government energy policy rather than a commercial firm, the Financial Times said.

One idea would be for the government to retain a "golden share," a device used in the past by some European governments to retain the right to veto takeovers of strategically important companies, he was quoted as saying.

CNOOC's links to the government were used by Chevron Corp to generate political opposition to the Chinese firm's rival bid for US energy company Unocal Corp earlier this year.

More than 70 percent of the shares in CNOOC, which is listed overseas in New York and Hong Kong, are held by its state-owned parent company.