China Blue Chemical Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), listed in Hong Kong on Friday, said sources with CNOOC.

China Blue Chemical began to solicit buyers from Sept. 18.

The IPO closed with a total of 1.4 billion H shares issued, including 127 billion Hong Kong dollars from Hong Kong buyers, 478 times the original plan, and 16.5 billion U.S. dollars from international buyers.

The upper limit per share price is 1.90 Hong Kong dollars China Blue Chemical is the only CNOOC subsidiary engaged in the production of mineral fertilizers and synthetic chemical products.

China Blue Chemical now has three urea production facilities, two methanol facilities and other auxiliary facilities.

China Blue Chemicals production facilities in South China's Hainan Province and in north China's Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region currently produce 1.84 million tons of urea and 800,000 tons of methanol each year.

The successful IPO will boost China BlueChem's capital base and improve its operation in fertilizer and other chemicals, said Wu Mengfei, Chairman of the China BlueChem.

According to CNOOC, capital from the IPO will be used to build its polyformaldehyde production facility, which is expected to be completed in 2008.

China Blue Chemical saw its joint venture methanol plant in Hainan carry out a successful trial run this month.

With an annual capacity of 600,000 tons, the methanol plant is one of the largest facilities of its kind. CNOOC, China's largest offshore oil company, now has four listed subsidiaries.

The others are China National Offshore Oil Company Limited listed in Hong Kong and New York, China Oilfield Services Limited in Hong Kong and Offshore Oil Engineering Co. Ltd. in Shanghai A shares market.

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