China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) has appointed Su Shulin as its new chairman, indicating the state-owned corporation may be expanding its focus on upstream operations.

After being elected as a director of the third session of the board at the second extraordinary general meeting of Sinopec this year, Su was elected chairman at the following meeting held by the board of directors.

His appointment came as no surprise as he had been nominated as general manager and secretary of the CPC (Communist Party of China) Committee of China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Corp.), Sinopec's parent company, in June after Chen Tonghai resigned both posts.

Chen also resigned as a director and chairman of the board of Sinopec "for personal reasons", which have yet to be explained.

A former senior executive president of PetroChina Co. Ltd, another state-owned oil giant, Su's appointment as the leader of the largest oil refiner of Asia may indicate a change in Sinopec's business development.

Su, 45, formerly worked at the Daqing oil field in northeast China and is familiar with the upstream operations of the oil sector. Usually senior executives of Sinopec come from the refining and petrochemical sectors. Su is expected to drive the prosperous upstream sector for Sinopec which has been importing large amounts of crude oil to feed its refining and petrochemical sector and is trying to develop more oil and gas resources at home and abroad.

Before leading Sinopec, Su worked as a senior government official of the northeastern province of Liaoning for less than one year.

Sinopec, listed in Shanghai, Hong Kong, New York and London, garnered 50.7 billion yuan (6.7 billion US dollars) in net profits last year, a growth of 28.1 percent on the previous year.

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2007)