The China National Offshore Oil Company Ltd. (CNOOC) said here Wednesday that its bid for the Unocal Corp. is still superior even after the Chevron Corp. raised its offer for the U.S. oil company.

A spokesman with the CNOOC Ltd. in Beijing said that he got the news that the Unocal board of directors recommended shareholders to accept the increased Chevron offer from the official website of Unocal.

"We think that our full-cash offer is still superior even after Chevron raised its bid," he said.

According to latest news from the Unocal website, Chevron, major rival of the CNOOC Ltd. in the bid for Unocal, raised its offer by two US dollars per share late Tuesday to 63.01 US dollars. The offer, structured as 40 percent cash and 60 percent stock, will be a total of more than 17 billion US dollars.

The CNOOC Ltd., China's largest offshore oil producer, claimed on June 23 that it has proposed a merger with Unocal, a major U.S. oil company, offering 67 US dollars in cash for per Unocal share, totaling 18.5 billion US dollars.

Not getting further remarks from the higher level of the CNOOC Ltd., the spokesman said that he believed the company will make a response soon.

Source: Xinhua