CNOOC, calling its proposed takeover good for Unocal and good for America, on Thursday formally bid US$91.6bn for Unocal and set about defusing US anxieties that the major Chinese oil company's acquisition of a California oil company would endanger US security, or its own finances, the Financial Times reported, quoting CNOOC chairman Fu Cheney. The US$67 per share offer from China National Offshore Oil Corp trumped US Chevron's US18bn takeover bid that had been accepted by Unocal. Fu told the Times that energy-hungry China would not export any oil and gas produced in the US and would retain all Unocal employees. Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, exemplified the political resistance: "Would China allow an American company to take over a Chinese company? We know countless instances where it hasn't been allowed." Credit-rating agencies said they might downgrade CNOOC as the deal, involving borrowed Chinese government funds, might overburden it with debt.