Citigroup maintains its "sell" rati ng for CNOOC

Citigroup maintains its "sell" rati ng for CNOOC Limited (CEO.NYSE; 0883.HK) shares in Hong Kong bourse, s aying that the current stock price is too high because it has reflecte d overestimated international crude oil prices.

But the investment bank said that it still looks to further incr ease of the company's share prices in the long term in account of its relatively low production costs.

Citigroup raised CNOOC's targeted price from 8.80 HK dollars to 12.70 HK dollars/share, while the company's profit forecasts for 2010 and 2011 were raised by 42 percent and 44 percent respectively.

CNOOC Limited, China's largest offshore oil and gas producer, is a solely upstream oil and gas company. CNOOC Group, its parent compan y, has a plan to inject Huizhou refinery, a mid-stream asset, into the Hong Kong and New York listed CNOOC Limited. However, the plan has no t been implemented by now.

For full details on CNOOC ADS (CEO) CEO. CNOOC ADS (CEO) has Short Term PowerRatings at TradingMarkets. Details on CNOOC ADS (CEO) Short Term PowerRatings is available at This Link.