By Chen Aizhu
BEIJING, Sept 27 (Reuters) - China's CNOOC Ltd isconsidering selling parts of its U.S. oil assets in the Gulf ofMexico, a company spokeswoman said on Thursday, but added thatit does not intend to fully exit the U.S. market.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that Nexen Petroleum, a unitof state-controlled CNOOC, was planning to exit the UnitedStates, divesting its stake in giant oil and gas developments inthe Gulf of Mexico amid the trade row between Washington andBeijing.
People familiar with the matter, speaking on condition ofanonymity because it was private, told Reuters on WednesdayNexen had not determined whether to sell the assets outright orswap offshore acreage with another company.
The decision to sell some U.S. assets in the Gulf of Mexicocame as the state-controlled Chinese oil firm finalises aninternal restructuring that combines its Beijing-headquarteredexploration and production team with Calgary-based NexenPetroleum, which it acquired in 2013.
It also follows a large oil discovery at the Stabroek blockoffshore Guyana, in which CNOOC is partner of a consortium ledby Exxon Mobil Corp, and which could recover more than 4billion barrels of oil.
"We just had a review of the company's growing globalassets... The Guyana discovery is redefining our perspective,"said the spokeswoman.
The state oil firm, however, has no plan to divest stakes inproducing oil assets in the Gulf of Mexico, which includes a 25percent interest in Hess Corp's Stampede development anda 21 percent stake in Royal Dutch Shell's Appomattoxdevelopment, the spokeswoman said.
The CNOOC spokeswoman did not comment on a potential linkbetween the firm's decision to sell some U.S. assets and theSino-American trade war, but said the strains for a state-ownedChinese company investing in the U.S. partly prompted the firmto consider scaling back.(Editing by Henning Gloystein and Kenneth Maxwell)
