Buffett Fooling Self on PetroChina's Darfur Ties

It doesn't stop there. The leadership of "innocent" PetroChina turns out to be pretty much the same people who are running Darfur-involved CNPC.

Don't believe me. Believe PetroChina. Just look through the company's latest public filings, and you will realize that most of the people at the top are, or have been for most of their career, CNPC people.

Take the chairman of the board, 60-year-old Chen Geng. Until last November he was also ... the general manager of CNPC. He held both positions from the spring of 2004. Chen has risen through the ranks of the oil and gas industry in Communist-controlled China for nearly 40 years.

Then look at PetroChina's vice-chairman and president, Jiang Jiemin. By amazing coincidence he is also the president and general manager of CNPC (he took over the general manager's role from Cheng last November). Jiemin worked for China's state controlled oil and gas industry for 30 years. As a a deputy provincial governor as well, he is a full-fledged member of the political elite.

Duan Wende, PetroChina senior VP, today combines this job with the role of "assistant to the general manager of CNPC," a role he has held now for six years.

Zheng Hu, a PetroChina director, is a deputy general manager of CNPC. So is Zhou Jiping, who only joined PetroChina after many years as the rising star of CNPC's ... international development operations.