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China's third-largest oil company has run into roadblocks in both houses of Congress over its bid to buy California's Unocal Corp. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., introduced a bill in the Senate on Friday that would bar the Chinese National Offshore Oil Co. from buying Unocal. The 70 percent government-owned CNOOC has presented an $18.5 billion unsolicited bid for the U.S. oil and gas firm. Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, said he plans to introduce an amendment to the House's Energy Policy Act of 2005 that would intensify scrutiny of Chinese policies. Pombo's 11th District encompasses the San Ramon headquarters of Chevron...

Unocal board won't back CNOOC bid Unocal Corp.'s directors refused to support a takeover of their company by CNOOC Ltd., the oil company whose parent is owned by the government of China. Sources familiar with the bid said the Unocal directors didn't back the unsolicited takeover bid because the CNOOC bid did not raise the Chinese oil company's $18.5 billion cash offer. San Ramon-based Chevron Corp. (CVX) has offered $16.3 billion in cash and stock to snap up Unocal. Chevron says its bid is superior to CNOOC's because the Chevron bid would close quickly, while CNOOC's proposal faces lengthy government...

Unocal board won't back CNOOC bid Unocal Corp.'s directors refused to support a takeover of their company by CNOOC Ltd., the oil company whose parent is owned by the government of China. Sources familiar with the bid said the Unocal directors didn't back the unsolicited takeover bid because the CNOOC bid did not raise the Chinese oil company's $18.5 billion cash offer. San Ramon-based Chevron Corp. (CVX) has offered $16.3 billion in cash and stock to snap up Unocal. Chevron says its bid is superior to CNOOC's because the Chevron bid would close quickly, while CNOOC's proposal faces lengthy government...

Senator vows to try to stop China-Unocal deal By Richard Cowan 2 hours, 42 minutes ago A Democratic senator said on July 15 he would try to get the Senate to pass legislation blocking the sale of Unocal to Chinese oil company CNOOC as it was against U.S. national interests. Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota said he was considering attaching his proposal to a foreign operations spending bill being debated by the Senate on July 15 and next week or to another bill. An aide delivers a message to Senator Dorgan (R) at the start of a hearing, November...

BEIJING (AP) - A Chinese general said Beijing might respond with nuclear weapons if the United States attacked China in a conflict over Taiwan, news reports said Friday. While the general has no policy-making role in China, his comments could add to tensions with Washington at a time of U.S. worries about China's military buildup and the proposed takeover of the oil company Unocal Corp. by a Chinese state-run company. "If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition into the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons," Maj.-Gen. Zhu Chenghu, a...

Market impact -- THE CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY Friday, July 15, 2005 As reported by Bloomberg News, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) stocks fell following Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney's testimony Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee that called attention to the adverse economic and national security implications of CNOOC's $18.5 billion bid to purchase Unocal. Gaffney pointed out that the PRC's play for Unocal's energy and rare earth mineral assets is hardly a normal commercial transaction, but rather part of Beijing's long-term plan to dominate strategic energy resources, materials, minerals and technologies in order to...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A crucial Unocal Corp. board meeting on Thursday to discuss competing bids from Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX - News) and a Chinese oil company ended without any public statement on the outcome, as expectations of a bidding war between the two suitors grew. Unocal -- which has so far backed Chevron's offer despite a higher bid from China's CNOOC Ltd.-- declined to provide any details on the meeting at the company's El Segundo, California, headquarters. A Unocal spokesman said it would violate securities law if he disclosed when the company plans to issue a statement. The jockeyeing...

A Chinese oil firm's bid to buy Unocal Corp. is part of that country's plan to shoulder past the United States as the globe's dominant superpower, panelists at a Capitol Hill hearing warned Wednesday. "I believe the (People's Republic of China's) aim is inexorably to supplant the United States as the world's premier economic power and, if necessary, to defeat us militarily," said Frank Gaffney, an assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration.

WASHINGTON -- A Chinese company's attempt to take over California-based Unocal threatens U.S. security and would give China political leverage in areas where the oil company has resources, lawmakers said Wednesday. "The simple fact is that energy is a strategic commodity," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Hunter, R-Calif., said Unocal's holdings _ from drilling rights to exploratory capabilities in Asia and elsewhere _ "represent strategic assets that affect U.S. national security."

Buying America, Chinese-style —Orville Schell Just as Bank of America’s current bid for a stake in the China Construction Bank raises no objections among US politicians, China, too must be permitted to invest abroad freely. What is fare for the US goose must be fare for the Chinese gander America’s relations with China have a disturbing tendency to oscillate between embrace and rejection, and that manic ambivalence is now on open display, as China’s relentlessly mounting economic power has finally resulted in the inevitable: Chinese firms are starting to buy up American companies. The United States received its first shock...

Toronto-- Tomorrow is D-Day for the Republic of China gaining a toehold in the American business world. Thursday is the day when the battle between Chevron corp. and CNOOC over Unocal Corp. is set to come to a head with the U.S. company’s board due to decide whether to back the Chinese group’s US$18.5-billion bid and withdraw support for Chevron’s US$16.6-billion cash-and-share offer, says the Financial Times. "The Unocal board’s decision is crucial to the outcome of CNOOC’s attempt to challenge Chevron–a move that has sparked a barrage of opposition from U.S. politicians." CNOOC’s offer will be the subject of...

BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese oil company CNOOC Ltd. is considering raising its $18.5 billion bid for Unocal Corp., according to a published report Wednesday. The state-controlled company's board also was expected to consider making other changes to its bid, the Financial Times said, citing unidentified sources. It didn't say what the higher offer might be. Spokesmen for Hong Kong-based CNOOC didn't immediately return telephone calls seeking comment. A higher bid would reflect the state-controlled Chinese firm's determination to woo Unocal shareholders away from a competing bid of $16.6 billion by Chevron Corp. "The board is unified. The board is interested...

The fate of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation's bid for Unocal remains uncertain, but one thing is clear. The takeover offer has prompted a gathering groundswell in Congress to make sure oil is defined as a product vital to America's national security. If the political push gains momentum, it will change the mandate and reach of a little-known, secretive body with representatives from 12 government agencies, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The outcome of Cnooc's bid for Unocal may rest in the hands of that committee. One salvo came at the end of last month...

A Chinese state-owned energy company's bid to buy a U.S. oil firm threatens American security and exposes the flaws in a 5-year-old law. Rep. Joe Barton, Texas Republican, promises to hold an energy and commerce committee hearing this month on the proposal by Chinese National Offshore Oil Co. to buy Unocal. Others in Congress have asked President Bush to "investigate the economic and national security implications of this potential acquisition." These concerns are appropriate, but we must look beyond the sale of an oil company and consider China's track record since the passage of legislation granting them Permanent Normal Trade...

President Bush said on Thursday it was best to let an official U.S. review of the Chinese bid for U.S. oil company Unocal run its course without him getting involved. "There is a process that our government uses to analyze such purchases. It's best I allow this process to move forward without comment," he said when questioned on the sidelines of a Group of Eight summit at Gleneagles, Scotland. The Chinese state-controlled energy firm CNOOC Ltd has offered $18.5 billion bid for Unocal Corp., higher than a rival offer from U.S. firm Chevron Corp . Despite the higher price of...

BEIJING (AFX) - Unocal Corp has told CNOOC Ltd it will consider withdrawing its backing for a 16.5 bln usd bid by Chevron Corp in favour of the Chinese company's 18.5 bln usd offer if it pledged to meet a number of conditions, the Financial Times reported. The newspaper, citing people close to the situation, said the conditions include requests for divestments and other demands from US regulators. The paper said CNOOC and Unocal have been in negotiations over the state- controlled group's landmark bid for the last 10 days. The US oil and gas group has set out what...

BEIJING, July 6 -- The chairman of CNOOC Ltd., the Chinese energy firm embroiled in a thorny campaign to purchase the U.S. oil company Unocal Corp., voiced dismay on Wednesday over what he called "overreaction" from Washington by those portraying the deal as a threat to fair trade and U.S. national security.In an interview with The Washington Post at CNOOC's headquarters in Beijing, Chairman Fu Chengyu said critics of his company's bid for Unocal were guilty of viewing China through an outdated lens by failing to appreciate how economic reforms have forced Chinese companies to adopt market principles and focus...

WASHINGTON : US oil major Chevron ruled out splitting up Unocal if it wins a battle against a state-owned Chinese company for control of the California firm. Chevron vice chairman Peter Robertson said the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has no chance of winning Unocal's Asian assets in a carve-up. "If the idea is that we take the US assets and somebody else takes Asia, that is not why we got into this game," he told The Financial Times. Unocal's Asian operations, which comprise 70 percent of its total assets, are the key appeal for both Chevron and CNOOC...

You don’t need to be Carl von Clausewitz to figure out that it could damage U.S. security interests if the Communists in Beijing defeat Chevron in their competing bids to purchase Unocal, the 9th largest U.S. oil-and-gas company. Just as Clauswitz, the 19th-century Prussian strategist, argued that war is the continuation of politics by other means, the People’s Republic of China has discovered that acquiring certain assets on the world market is politics by other means. It does not matter whether the asset the regime seeks is state-of-the-art missile technology or old-fashioned crude, the ultimate question is whether the acquisition...

Two weeks ago, our company, CNOOC Ltd., extended a friendly, all-cash offer to Unocal's board of directors. After being invited to engage in dialogue with Unocal earlier this year, we entered detailed negotiations regarding a possible merger. We have made our offer because Unocal's asset base fits our business extremely well--70% of its oil and gas reserves are close to Asian markets where we operate. We are listed on the New York and Hong Kong stock exchanges and have fiduciary obligations to all of our shareholders. We believe this merger will offer our shareholders, which include many leading U.S. institutional...