About

CNOOC Iraq is the largest overseas subsidiary of CNOOC, China’s biggest producer of offshore crude oil and natural gas. As the Iraqi branch of the parent company, CNOOC Iraq is the operator of the country’s Missan oil field. A year after the company was founded in 2010, LV Ruhong was selected to be general manager of its legal department. Ruhong had impressed the parent company between 2005 and 2011 as a legal supervisor in various downstream sections across CNOOC from gas and power, refinery to petrochemical imports and exports. In that time he participated in the renegotiation of a major liquefied natural gas (LNG) sale and purchase agreement for the first large-scale LNG project in mainland China constructed and managed by domestic enterprises. ‘I acquired substantial legal and commercial experiences as a trailblazer negotiator in the then emerging LNG businesses’, Ruhong recalls. Since moving to Iraq, Ruhong has built CNOOC’s first overseas legal team concentrated on legal risk management for overseas large oil and gas projects, and succeeded in setting up the structure, strategy and methods of legal management in a systematic way to ensure the effective management of legal risks within the company. ‘I was recognised as innovative and courageous in adopting new ways of management against diversified and complex overseas environment, in particular in the Middle East and Iraq’, he says, adding: ‘In light of the unique and sophisticated situation of Iraq, I closely monitored the host country’s laws and policies and conducted thorough legal research to keep abreast of any changes’. Ruhong serves as a member of CNOOC Iraq’s joint management committee and is responsible for all significant decision-making in terms of petroleum operations in oil fields. During the process of fulfilling all these responsibilities, he has endeavoured to be a counsel to senior management and was involved in the overall strategic decision-making process, because of his ‘ability to discuss managerial and strategic issues beyond the typical and strict legal perspective’.