December 24

The State Council and the Central Committee of Chinese Communist Party appointed Mr. Wang Yan as President of CNOOC and the Secretary of the CNOOC Communist Party Group.

August 13

With the agreement of the State Industrial and Commercial Administration, the names of the subordinate regional companies of CNOOC were re-verified as: China Offshore Oil Bohai Corporation (COBHC), China Offshore Oil Nanhai West Corporation (CONHW), China Offshore Oil Nanhai East Corporation (CONHE), and China Offshore Oil Donghai Corporation (CODHC).

June 1

The State Council approved to open up part of the East China Sea for sino- foreign cooperation. On June 30, CNOOC made an announcement on the notification of the forth round of bidding for part of the offshore areas in East China Sea areas, the bidding areas include the northern and southern sea areas, with a total areas of 72,800 sq.kms.

May 8

CNOOC signed with American Crestone Energy in Beijing, a petroleum contract on Wan An Bei-21 Contract Block area, covering an area of 25,155 sq.km.

February 25

Premier Li Peng wrote an inscription for the 10 years anniversary of the founding of CNOOC "Making great efforts to develop Chinese offshore petroleum industry and to make even greater contribution to the modernization"

January 19

Vice Premier Zhu Rongji made an inspection tour to the Huizhou 26-1 oil field production platform and the "Discovery" floating production tanker.