Pentagon blacklists Cnooc due to military links

Further escalation could lead to Chinese NOC becoming locked out of US-dollar-based financial system

Cnooc, China’s main offshore energy explorer, faces the risk of sanctions from the administration of outgoing US president Donald Trump after the Pentagon added the state-owned NOC to a blacklist of companies with alleged links to the Chinese military. The official blacklisting of Cnooc by the US Department of Defense in early December confirmed days of speculation that the company was in Washington’s crosshairs, and marked the first time one of China’s three NOCs has been directly embroiled in the geopolitical fight between the two superpowers. There is no sign for now that the other two companies, CNPC and Sinopec, will also be blacklisted. Shares in Cnooc’s listed unit in Hong Kong slumpe