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By Xie Fang

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), one of the country’s three largest oil companies, announced Tuesday that it had struck strategic partnership deals with nine foreign counterparts, The Paper reported.

The involved foreign companies include British crude oil producer Royal Dutch Shell, U.S. oil brands Chevron and ConocoPhillips, French petroleum producer Total, Norwegian oil product seller Statoil ASA, Middle East oil producer Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), Canadian oil brand Husky, Australian petroleum company Roc Oil and South Korean oil group SK.

CNOOC says in a statement that the purpose of these deals is to build long-term and stable partnerships among all the parties and to draw on one another’s strengths and expertise to make breakthroughs in the joint exploitation of offshore oil.

Yang Hua, chairman of the CNOOC, said at the signing ceremony that the CNOOC, which runs its business in China’s first “offshore special economic zone” and first “special industry” enjoying an all-around opening-up, is a vivid epitome of China’s reform and opening-up which serves as a pioneer during the ongoing cooperation between China’s industrial system and that of foreign countries.

After more than 30 years of development, the CNOOC has reached an annual oil and gas output of 100 million tons, making significant contributions to China’s energy security effort.

Data shows that over the past three decades, the CNOOC has signed cooperation agreements with 81 foreign peers from 21 countries.

The company has also collaborated with foreign partners in exploiting some ten large shallow and deep-water oil fields within China’s territorial waters, attracting more than 200 billion yuan (29 billion U.S. dollars) in foreign investments and making the offshore oil industry pull in the most foreign investments among China’s industries.