China bid for Unocal faces hurdles

LOS ANGELES -- The hostile $18.5 billion bid from the Chinese state-owned oil company CNOOC Ltd. to buy oil and gas company Unocal Corp. yesterday has significant regulatory hurdles to overcome, not least of which is whether the deal would threaten national security.

Chevron Corp., which has a deal in place to buy Unocal for nearly $16.6 billion in cash and stock, said it will not sweeten its bid for Unocal -- at least not yet.

''We're satisfied with the bid we have on the table," Peter Robertson, Chevron vice chairman, said in an interview on CNBC. ''We think it's still the best opportunity for the shareholders."

On Wednesday Unocal said its board of directors will consider the CNOOC offer. The company, based in El Segundo, Calif., said it had no new comment on the bid yesterday.

Already, Congress was building pressure on the Bush administration to carefully examine the bid by CNOOC, which is 70 percent owned by the Chinese government.