A bid by CNOOC to buy up a US oil and gas producer in 2005 ended up failing after it faced strident political opposition.
CNOOC had made an all-cash £10.45billion offer to buy Unocal, trumping a lower £9.77billion bid by US oil major Chevron which ultimately succeeded.
However, CNOOC, which is ultimately controlled by the Chinese government, faced opposition from members of the US Congress from the start. In the week before it pulled out of the bid, a congressional committee added a provision to a broad energy bill that would have delayed the necessary government review of CNOOC’s offer by months.
A comment by China Daily following the thwarting of CNOOC’s takeover bid said: “The explicit message the takeover battle sends to the world is that American business is defined by political needs.”
Sinopec chairman Fu Chengyu, who was then chairman of CNOOC, said at the time: “CNOOC has given active consideration to further improving the terms of its offer, and would have done so but for the political environment in the US.”