"The risks involved in the Nigeria project are acceptable, because the operator is not CNOOC Ltd itself and the field is far away from the continent," Yang added.

CNOOC's parent firm China National Offshore Oil Corp told China Daily earlier that its priorities for 2007 will be the construction of the refinery with 12 million tons of capacity, exploration works in the Bohai Sea and South China Sea, the oil sand program in Canada and liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Shanghai Municipality and Fujian Province.

Offshore upstream field developer CNOOC is turning its attention to the downstream segment of oil refining to enrich its business. That is why it is pinning high hopes on the 12-million-ton refinery project in Huizhou of Guangdong Province, according to an independent oil analyst.

CNOOC is a Hong Kong-listed public company that engages primarily in the exploration, development and production of crude oil and natural gas offshore in China. Yang said yesterday that CNOOC would not tap the oil product retail business in China.

                                                                       (China Daily 01/31/2007 page13) 

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