BP has named Simon Yang as the new head of its China operation, replacing Yang Xiaoping. Simon Yang has been a BP staff for 20 years. Previously, he was the president of BP’s Asian acetyls business. The appointment followed a sale of its petrochemical assets in China which will reduce its presence in the country’s petrochemical sector, in line with its global vision on the energy transition.
BP first established operations in China in the 1970s but began scaling back presence to focus on low-carbon energy. Last week it sold to Ineos $5 billion petrochemical assets, including a 2.7 million tons/year PTA plant in Zhuhai and two acetic plants that it operates in joint ventures with Sinopec. In 2017, BP sold a 50% stake in Shanghai Secco Petrochemical to Sinopec for $1.7 billion. The project is BP’s largest investment in China, which includes a 1.09 million tons/year naphtha cracker, and some downstream production units.
In the upstream sector, BP withdrew from an offshore production-sharing contract (PSC) with CNOOC in 2015. It also exited two shale gas PSCs with PetroChina and disbanded its main China upstream team in 2019.
BP maintains its retail business in China, running 740 dual-branded service stations in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces in JV with Sinopec and PetroChina, respectively. It also launched its first solely BP-branded retail stations in Shandong and Hebei provinces in 2019 in a JV with private refiner Dongming. BP supplies lubricants in the country under the Castrol brand. BP also supplies jet fuel to around 29 airports in central and southern China through two JVs with state-owned CNAF.
The company is now focusing on integrated energy and decarbonization solutions in China. It develops electric vehicle charging infrastructure in cooperation with technology startup 66iFuel and car-hailing app company Didi.
Tags: All Products,AlwaysFree,Asia Pacific,China,English,NEA
Published on July 6, 2020 4:19 PM (GMT+8)Last Updated on July 6, 2020 4:19 PM (GMT+8)
