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The Alberta Securities Commission is banning the former CEO of the Canadian arm of Chinese oil giant CNOOC Ltd. from acting as a director or officer in the province after he settled insider trading claims against him in the United States.

The regulator says it is reciprocating an order made by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last fall after Fengjiu Zhang — who had moved back to China by then — agreed to a three-year ban there to settle charges that he broke U.S. insider trading laws.

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The SEC found that less than a week before CNOOC announced in July 2012 a deal to buy Calgary-based Nexen Inc. for US$15.1 billion, Zhang, then the CEO of Calgary-based CNOOC Canada Inc., asked a friend in the U.S. to buy stock for him and tipped off another friend in the U.S. who also bought stock.

The SEC found that the first person made a profit of almost US$66,000 and the second made more than US$11,000 by later selling the shares.