China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is a state-owned oil company incorporated on February 15, 1982. CNOOC is authorized under the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Exploitation of Offshore Petroleum Resources in Cooperation with Foreign Enterprises to assume the overall responsibilities for the exploitation of China¡¯s offshore oil and gas resources in cooperation with foreign partners.

Headquartered in Beijing, CNOOC has 37,000 employees. It is one of the three largest state-owned oil companies in China with a registered capital of 50 billion yuan.

In 2005, CNOOC generated sales of 87.4 billion yuan with net income of 37.6 billion yuan and paid 18 billion yuan in taxes, an increase of 23.3 percent, 55.2 percent and 48.8 percent compared with the previous year respectively. At the end of 2005, its total assets and net assets reached 198.5 billion yuan and 105.4 billion yuan from 2.8 billion yuan and 2.2 billion yuan when it was established. It ranked the 8th among the latest Top 50 Asian Companies by Forbes.

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