In early 2005 the group is seeking new opportunities

South China Sea, it has regular contacts with the leaders of the major Western partners in the CNOOC.

But, above all, Fu Chengyu is going to be the great craftsman of the internationalisation of the group. The adventure begins in 1997, when Prime Minister Li Peng asked oil companies to leave the Chinese border and enter the big oil fields of the planet. A question of survival for the country! With a growth of 10 per year, China indeed has the greatest need of black gold. A black gold which it intends to operate itself to ensure its energy independence. At the turn of the 2000s, China is ready to enter the oil game. It is at this time that Fu Chengyu truly enters the scene.

When Fu was appointed President of CNOOC in October 2003, Chinese energy needs soaring. China is now the second largest oil consumer in the world behind the United States, with 7 million barrels burned every day. While some experts announce a doubling of its needs by 2010, the need to ensure its energy supply is more figure of cornerstone of foreign policy in Beijing. In the matter, China plays on all the tables, signing agreements with Saudi Arabia and the Iran, firmly taking foot in Africa, up to spawn with the Venezuela de Chavez, hitting every time front US interests: refusal to join the sanctions against the Sudan in the case of the genocide in Darfur, leniency towards the Iran in the case of the uranium enrichmentregular contacts with the Venezuela... This diplomacy gives cold sweats strategists in Washington, who see with horror to draw a Beijing-Tehran-Caracas axis...

Strategy of conquest

In Hong Kong, which is installed the headquarters of the CNOOC, Fu Chengyu effectively relays this strategy of conquest. Just installed at the head of the group, it negotiates the acquisition of several large deposits of oil in Indonesia before gaining a foothold in the operation of the gas in Australia. In early 2005, the group is seeking new opportunities. The Unocal case arrives on the scene. When ChevronTexaco made a friendly bid of 17 billion over his countryman in April, the Chinese Group decided to enter the dance. June 23, he proposes 18.4 billion, payable in cash. A premium which should welcome the shareholders of Unocal. But it is effective without the political dimension of the file.

That hostile OPA of the CNOOC on the American oil group has been validated or even encouraged at the highest level of the Chinese State, this is in fact no doubt. Controlled by Beijing, led by a member of the party, the Group benefited from the assistance of the Central Bank of China and received a loan of $ 6 billion of several State-owned banks, including 2.5 billion interest-free! At the time, were unleashed in the United States. Perhaps is it not the first time that China has demonstrated its European ambitions. In summer 2005, no one has forgotten the resumption of personal computers from IBM by Lenovo in December 2004.

Policy implications

But oil, commodity more expensive and the major political implications, is too strategic to let a US group under the Chinese flag. In fact, if successful, the CNOOC would take control of a group holding significant assets in the region of the Asian Pacific, especially Indonesia, Thailand and Australia. The Chinese would also put hands on 1.7 billion barrels of the Caspian Sea, the Gulf of the Mexico, the Brazil, the Azerbaijan and Burma. Unthinkable in the eyes of Washington, who orchestrates a real shot of dam against the CNOOC. "It would be naive to see in the acquisition of Unocal a simple commercial transaction". "The strategy of Beijing is to dominate energy markets and to dominate the Western Pacific", said thus the former head of the CIA, James Woolsey, just days after the deposit of the offer. After the foreign investment Committee, chaired by the Secretary to the Treasury John Snow, and whose mission is to consider acquisitions in terms of national security, it is the turn of the House of representatives to issue an unfavourable opinion. On 30 June, by 398 votes against 15, it adopts a resolution stating that the transaction represents a threat to national security. A little later, Richard D'Amato, the Chairman of the Economic Commission and américano-chinoise security requires the establishment of a "much more aggressive acquisitions control system" If the madness of Chinese purchases in the US economy accelerated

Fu Chengyu may multiply guarantees ready to cooperate in an investigation of American security and even to divest American assets of Unocal , send a letter to members of Congress to ensure the strictly commercial nature of the operation and develop the higher nature of its offer of ChevronTexaco, saying nothing is! On 2 August, war weary, the CNOOC is forced to withdraw its offer. A few days later, Unocal agreed that Chevron, an amount of $ 17.6 billion. Shareholders lost that the security of the United States has won...

Washington, you blow. A case of coup was given to Chinese ambitions in the oil. But for how long Hungry black gold China grows more than ever its pawns in ancient hunts kept Western companies, particularly in Africa, where it invests heavily. Alone between January and April 2006 the CNOOC has signed two major agreements with the Kenya and Nigeria.

In its Hong Kong Office, Communist Chief Executive Officer Fu Chengyu today prepares new conquests. In the meantime without doubt to return one day to the United States...