The story
China United Coalbed Methane Corp., Ltd. was founded by two ministries and one state-owned enterprise of the State Council of the People's Republic of China in 1996 (China National Petroleum Corp., Ministry of Coal Industry and Ministry of Geology & Mineral Resources). At first it had a share capital of CN¥100 million. Under the Regulation on Sino-foreign Cooperation in the Development of Continental Petroleum Resources, which was revised on 2001, the corporation was the monopoly to sign deal with foreign industry to explore and produce coalbed methane. Although in 2007 another revise of the regulation giving the state council nominate other company in case-by-case basis. The State Council formally authorized 3 more companies in 2010, namely China National Petroleum Corporation (which already acquired the rights by 2009 partial demerger of China CBM), China Petrochemical Corporation and Henan Coalbed Methane Development and Utilization Co., Ltd.
From Wikipedia’s article on China United Coalbed Methane, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3