Sinopec Group continues to dominate China's oil products market
Shanghai. January 5. INTERFAX-CHINA - China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec Group), the country's second largest oil company, continued to dominate the domestic oil products market last year, selling 151 million tons of gasoline, diesel and kerosene, according to statistics released by the energy giant Jan. 4.
Beijing-based oil industry expert Han Qiang told Interfax that Sinopec Group, which accounted for about 60 percent of China's aggregate oil products sales last year, continues to go unchallenged on the domestic oil products sales market.
According to National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) statistics released last December, China's total oil products sales over the first 11 months of 2011 grew five percent year-on-year to 222.15 million tons.
Unlike fellow state-owned energy giant China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), which relies on upstream oil and gas production, Sinopec Group's advantage lies in it's downstream oil refining and distribution, said Han.
As of the end of 2011, Sinopec Group operated more than 30,000 gas stations throughout China, in addition to 8,600 kilometers of oil products pipeline, said the company, adding that its fueling stations sold more than 100 million tons of oil products for the first time last year.
-WV