Mainland oil producer CNOOC is still interested in making an overseas acquisition despite the setback suffered when political opposition derailed its bid to buy United States oil firm Unocal Corp, according to chief financial officer Yang Hua.
'Our strategy [on acquisitions] has not been changed,' Mr Yang said.
CNOOC posted a net profit for the six months to June of 11.82 billion yuan, a 68.6 per cent increase.
Chairman Fu Chengyu said future mergers and acquisitions could be opportunistic, like its purchase of a stake in an Indonesian oil field of Spanish-Argentinian giant Repsol-YPF in 2002.
The group would also seek to buy into liquefied natural gas assets such as the Tangguh gas field in Indonesia and the North West Shelf gas project in Australia, Mr Fu said.
CNOOC has been in talks with the shareholders of the Gorgon gas project in offshore West Australia for almost two years on buying a stake, as a condition of parent China National Offshore Oil Corp's long-term gas purchases.