Chevron Corp. said on Wednesday that its proposed 16.4 billion-dollar acquisition of Unocal Corp. has been cleared by stock market regulators -- the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The company said that SEC has cleared Chevron's registration statement for the transaction.

This was the final US regulatory requirement following the Federal Trade Commission's approval of the deal. It means that the offer now hangs on a shareholder vote on Aug. 10.

Unocal originally accepted the bid from Chevron, the second largest oil company in the United States. But it is also now considering a 18.5 billion-dollar offer from China's CNOOC Ltd.

In a SEC filing on Tuesday, Unocal said that it continues to recommend the Chevron offer and that the board would inform shareholders of its evaluation of the CNOOC bid before their vote.

Source: Xinhua