CNOOC is turning to international companies for help reaching this goal. The same day that President Xi Jinping made a speech on 40 years of China's reform and opening-up, CNOOC announced (link in Chinese) a strategic cooperation agreement with nine companies, including Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips Co., to explore oil and gas resources in the Pearl River Mouth Basin, in the south of Guangdong province.