China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has appointed Dai Houliang as chairman, replacing Wang Yilin who is retiring, it said in a statement posted on its official WeChat account on Friday, report agencies. Dai will step down from chairman position at China Petrochemical Group (Sinopec Group), according to the statement. He served the last decade as a senior executive of Sinopec Group's listed arm, Sinopec Corp.
Zhang Yuzhuo, who once served as the chairman of China's largest coal miner Shenhua Group, has been appointed chairman of Sinopec, replacing Dai, Sinopec said on its official WeChat account. Wang Yilin previously served as the chairman of China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC).
The appointments come two months after China announced the merger of the networks operated by the three state-owned giants, CNPC, Sinopec and CNOOC, under a single state entity. China has been accelerating the overhaul of its energy sector in recent years, including changes to its gas pricing policy and merging power and coal mining giants.
Dai started his Sinopec management experience in 1997 as the deputy managing director of its subsidiary plant, Yangzi Petrochemical Corp. Sinopec is Asia's largest refiner.