OREANDA-NEWS. May 17, 2011. China National Offshore Oil Corporation (NYSE:CEO) (CNOOC), parent of CNOOC Ltd. (CEO.NYSE; 0883.HK), Wednesday clarified media reports saying that its listing subsidiary's employees enjoy average 386, 7000 yuan of annual salary, which might be high enough to be controversial in China with a national average disposable income of less than 20,000 yuan a year.

CNOOC said in a statement on its company website that the figure involves not only annual salary but also all labor costs, including education and training funds, union dues, social insurance expenses, enterprise annuity, medical insurance and personal accident insurance expense for employees working offshore, in which disposable salary could be a minor part.

CNOOC also explained that most of the 4,650 employees working for CNOOC Ltd. are upstream oil and gas exploration and development engineers, high-level managements and overseas employees, whose salaries are relatively higher than others in the mid- and down-stream sectors not integrated into the listed companies.

CNOOC noted that a total of 100,000 employees are working for CNOOC and its subsidiaries; while the company strictly abides by the government's relevant regulations and provisions on compensation for state-owned enterprises.