- Cnooc (CEO -4.7%) has sold off its majority stake in Canadian oil and gas venture Northern Cross, according to an executive in the Canadian company, possibly a sign the state-controlled Chinese company is retrenching after spending billions to establish a foothold in North America.
- Privately held Northern Cross hopes to drill test wells in Yukon Territory, which currently produces no oil and natural gas; the area may contain trillions of cubic feet of gas and millions of barrels of oil trapped under the permafrost in one of the last unexplored frontiers for energy development.
- Separately, Cnooc says it posted a 15% decline in Q3 revenue from oil and natural gas to 30.75B yuan ($4.5B), which analysts say was expected as oil prices have not rebounded to a level that would spark an increase in production.