CNOOC Gas and Power Executive Under Probe for Suspected Graft

BEIJING, Nov 13 (Reuters) – A senior official of China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) is under investigation suspected of having received bribes, China’s top prosecutor said on Thursday, the first executive from the offshore oil and gas firm embroiled by Beijing’s war on graft.

Luo Weizhong, general manager of CNOOC Gas & Power group, a fully owned subsidiary of CNOOC, had also been detained, according to a statement on the website of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.(www.spp.gov.cn)

Luo is also the general manager of international trading for the CNOOC Gas & Power group, which is in charge of investing in multi-billion dollar gas import terminals and lining up long-term import deals of liquefied natural gas.

CNOOC is the parent of Hong Kong and New York-listed CNOOC Ltd .

President Xi Jinping has launched a sweeping crackdown on corruption since taking power, warning that the problem is a threat to the Communist Party’s very survival and vowing to go after powerful “tigers” as well as lowly “flies.”

The crackdown has so far netted Zhou Yongkong, former security chief and previously an oil industry man, and Jiang Jiemin, former head of top energy group CNPC. (Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Nick Macfie)

(c) 2014 Thomson Reuters, All Rights Reserved

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