Cnooc May Drop Unocal, Seek Marathon, Amerada Hess, Murphy Oil

Cnooc Ltd., China’s third-largest oil company, may abandon its effort to acquire Unocal Corp. and instead seek other U.S. oil producers, investors said.

Cnooc’s $18.5 billion cash bid was passed over by Unocal’s board yesterday in favor of a sweetened cash-and-stock offer from Chevron Corp. worth $17.1 billion. Cnooc, 70 percent owned by a state-controlled company, has until Aug. 10 to raise its bid. That’s when shareholders vote on the Chevron deal.

“Chevron has probably knocked Cnooc out of the water,” said Stephen Leeb, who manages $100 million, including Chevron shares, at Leeb Capital Management in New York. Cnooc may decide “to bid for another American oil company without the sort of competition they’re facing now.”
Bloomberg