Chi­na Na­tion­al Off­shore Oil Cor­po­ra­tion (CNOOC), one of the world’s largest off­shore oil and gas pro­duc­ers, is poised to deep­en its pres­ence in T&T af­ter the Cab­i­net ap­proved the award of pro­duc­tion shar­ing con­tracts for two off­shore blocks.

Min­is­ter of En­er­gy Dr Roodal Mooni­lal dis­closed yes­ter­day that Cab­i­net ac­cept­ed a rec­om­men­da­tion from the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries to move for­ward with award­ing Blocks 24 and 25 to the Chi­nese state-owned en­er­gy gi­ant fol­low­ing a com­pet­i­tive bid round con­duct­ed last year.

Mooni­lal de­scribed CNOOC as the third-largest na­tion­al oil com­pa­ny in Chi­na and the coun­try’s largest off­shore pro­duc­er of oil and gas.