What’s new: Two senior executives of state-owned oil giant China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) have been placed under investigation as an anti-corruption crackdown sweeps through the oil and gas industries.
Fang Zhi, a former vice president of CNOOC, and Chen Ming, a former manager of the company’s Tianjin operation, are under investigation on suspicion of serious violations of law and discipline, the country’s top graft buster said in a Tuesday statement.
Both Fang and Chen are CNOOC veterans. Fang, 62, joined the company in 1982 and was appointed vice president in 2005, overseeing the company’s international businesses. Fang played an important role in CNOOC’s 2013 acquisition of Canada’s Nexen Inc. The $19.4 billion deal is the second largest overseas takeover by a Chinese company.
Chen, 60, served as deputy general manager and production department head of CNOOC’s Tianjin subsidiary, which runs the company’s oil and gas development in the Bohai Sea.
The context: Anti-graft officials have targeted the country’s sprawling, state-controlled oil and gas sectors this year, bringing down several senior executives from giant state companies.
Earlier in March, Li Yong, the former deputy Communist Party head and general manager of CNOOC, was probed.
In February, Wang Yilin, a former chairman and Communist Party chief of state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), was placed under investigation, four years after retirement. That followed the downfall of Duan Yanxiu, a former party head of the natural gas business unit of Sinopec, in January.
Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com)
