Argentina: Bridas Pulls Out of PAE Transaction

CNOOC Limited announced today that Bridas Corporation (“Bridas”), a 50/50% joint venture between CNOOC International Limited and Bridas Energy Holdings (“BEH”), informed the Company that it sent to BP PLC(“BP”) a letter on November 5 to terminate the transaction to acquire 60% equity interest in Pan American Energy(”PAE”) from BP.

The aforesaid acquisition was entered into between BP and Bridas on 28 November 2010.

As a consequence of such termination, Bridas will continue with its current participation in PAE, which will continue to be governed in the same way that it was governed before.

Mr. Yang Hua, CEO of the Company said, “We were willing to strengthen our partnership with BEH and further expand our presence in Argentina through this transaction in the best interest of our shareholders. However, certain conditions precedent to the completion of the deal were not obtained as expected, and Bridas chose to terminate the transaction. In the future, CNOOC Limited will continue to look for overseas opportunities which could add value to our company both in short term and long run.”

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Source: CNOOC, November 7, 2011