WHEN officials wearing Mao suits inaugurated the headquarters of the newly created China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) in Beijing 40 years ago, they flagged a mission statement to open the country's offshore acreage to foreign participants without more ado. The state-controlled company delivered on its commitment on the very day of its inauguration on 15 February, 1982, offering 25 offshore blocks to foreign companies. The response was emphatic, with 33 companies, including Shell, BP, Chevron and Total submitting bids. Since then, the spin-off from China's Ministry of Petroleum has become one of the world's leading offshore operators, with assets in Brazil, Guyana, the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere. Over the past 40 years, CNOOC has also provided a conduit for more than 250 billion yuan ($40 billion) in investments by 81 companies from 21 different countries. Total - now TotalEnergies - was the first foreign company to operate offshore China through production sharing contracts in the early 1980s. Forty years later to the day of CNOOC's inauguration, the French giant joined other foreign companies and Chinese independents in signing new PSCs with CNOOC to reinstate their commitment offshore China.
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