Beijing, July 26, 2000 - CNOOC Limited (the "Company") is pleased to announce today that Mr. Meng Ann Lim joins the board of the Company as a an investor director.

Mr. Meng Ann Lim is a Senior Vice President of GIC Infrastructure Pte Ltd., an affiliate of GC Special Investment Pte. Ltd., the private equity arm of Government of Singapore Investment Corp. Mr. Lim joined GIC Infrastructure in September 1997 after a 4-year career with International Finance Corporation ("IFC") in Washington D. C. He was an Investor Officer with the East Asia Division of IFC, specializing in industrial projects in China and was a member of the team behind IFC′s pioneering role of introducing limited resource financing in China. Prior to joining IFC Mr. Lim had a banking career in Singapore where he worked for DBS Bank and the local branches of Security Pacific Bank and Bank of America. Mr. Lim holds a MBA from Strathclyde University, Scotland, and a B Eng (First Class Honor) from University of London, England. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Mr. Liucheng Wei, chairman, CEO & president of the Company warmly welcomes Mr. Lim on board as a director. He is proud of the Mr. Lim′s familiarity with China in addition to his knowledge of and experience in international financial community.

He emphasized: "Our company is obligated to create value for our investors. With an investor director on our board, we would be able to access alternative thinking and fresh perspectives from outside the Company. This, coupled with our commitment to corporate governance, will be beneficial to all the stakeholders of the Company and will serve to materialize our mission - to maximize shareholders′ value."

CNOOC Limited is the largest producer of oil and gas offshore China and is also one of the independent oil and gas exploration and production companies in the world with the net proved reserves of approximately 1.8 billion barrels-of-oil equivalent as of December 31, 1999.