US to restrict CNOOC trading

US persons will be barred from trading Chinese energy producer CNOOC equities, including any index funds that list securities issued by the company or its subsidiaries, as of 1 February.

The prohibition will apply to any traded or over-the-counter security, including American Depositary Receipts, the US Treasury Department said in new guidance issued today. President Donald Trump's administration on 3 December deemed CNOOC to have ties to the China's military.

The US listed CNOOC, state-controlled refiners Sinochem, ChemChina and Norinco and 31 other major Chinese engineering, telecommunications and technology firms as having ties to the military, requiring US-based investors and companies to end any transactions in publicly traded securities or derivatives in these companies.

CNOOC is significantly bigger than any of the other Chinese energy firms on the list. The offshore-focused producer is China's third-largest state-run energy company by output and market capitalization. It produced 1.42mn b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d) in the first half of 2020, including 363,000 b/d from its international operations, and is China's biggest LNG importer.

CNOOC also has one of the largest overseas portfolios of any Chinese energy firm, notably through its 2013 acquisition of Canada's Nexen that gave it operational control of the Buzzard field in the North Sea. Its US assets, operated by its CNOOC International arm, include acreage in the Eagle Ford and Niobrara shale basins, as well as stakes in the Appomattox platform and Stampede fields in the Gulf of Mexico.

The stated rationale for the list is a determination under a previously unused 1998 US law that "communist Chinese military companies" should be cut off from US financial and capital markets to prevent the People's Liberation Army access to advanced technologies and expertise. Regardless of the justification, the action fits into a Trump administration strategy of achieving a decoupling of the US and Chinese economies.

The incoming administration of president-elect Joe Biden has talked down the notion of decoupling, but it promises a tough approach to China, including on economic issues.

The US needs to improve relations with its allies to be able to compete with China and "to hold China's government accountable for its trade abuses, technology, human rights and other fronts," Biden said today.

By Haik Gugarats