Oil giants investigate US bribe claims but find no violations

The mainland's two biggest oil companies have been investigating for more than four months a claim by the US Department of Justice that employees from six state-owned companies received bribes from a US supplier, according to state media.

But investigators at the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (Cnooc) and PetroChina, two of the six companies mentioned in the claim, had looked into every transaction involved and found no violations of business ethics so far, Xinhua reported. The investigations have not been completed.

Xinhua quoted an anonymous source at Cnooc as saying that the company had taken the US government's findings seriously and had promptly launched an investigation. The FBI announced in April that six former executives of Control Components Inc (CCI), a California-based valve manufacturer, had been charged 'in connection with a conspiracy to secure contracts by paying bribes to officials of foreign, state-owned companies'.

The company pleaded guilty last month to paying nearly US$5 million in bribes to companies in about 36 countries. It agreed to a fine of US$18.2 million.

Other mainland companies on the list were Jiangsu Nuclear Power, Guohua Electric Power, China Petroleum Materials and Equipment and Dongfang Electric Corporation.

Xinhua said Cnooc's top-level Communist Party cadres had led five investigative taskforces to verify all business transactions between Cnooc and CCI from 2002 to this year.

So far, there was no evidence linking Cnooc employees to the scandal.