Sinopec Pursues Oilfield Service

State-owned China Petrochemical Corp., (or Sinopec Group) − the parent company of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (SNP or Sinopec Corp.) − has formed a new oilfield service unit to facilitate its upstream oil and gas operations in China and other countries. The international market of the new entity − Sinopec Oilfield Service Corp. − include North America, the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia and South East Asia.

With a total $12.2 billion (76.6 billion yuan) worth of fixed asset and 140,000 employees, this unit was launched at Beijing while restructuring the service departments of eight secondary oilfields such as Shengli, Zhongyuan and Jianghan. The company expects this oilfield service arm to collect $15.2 billion (95 billion yuan) of revenue in 2012. It has already gathered $14.2 billion worth of 480 contracts in 43 countries.

Recently, Sinopec Group created an engineering and construction arm − Sinopec Engineering (Group) Co Ltd − for its refining and petrochemical operation. This unit is expected to be listed by next year in Hong Kong. Sinopec Oilfield Service is also expected to be listed eventually, but the company did not give any specific timeline for it.