SINGAPORE (Reuters) – China’s Sinopec Corp is set to promote its Asia trading chief Wang Yahang to become general manager of its trading arm Unipec, several senior trading sources said.
Wang, 51, who started as a gasoline trader with Unipec, was in charge of Unipec Singapore for about eight years.
Sinopec is the world’s largest refiner by capacity and last year processed a record volume of crude oil at 5.15 million barrels per day.
The company has yet to announce Wang’s appointment as it is still being processed internally, the sources said.
Sinopec declined to comment. The sources declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Wang will take over Unipec’s general manager role from Zhong Fuliang, who was appointed as chairman of the trading arm in last year.
Chen Lei, current head of Unipec’s operations in the United States, will likely take over Wang’s role as Unipec Asia head, the sources said.
Formally known as China International United Petroleum & Chemical Co, Unipec handled 396 million metric tons of crude, refined products and natural gas last year, with profits at about 10.5 billion yuan ($1.45 billion).
Unipec has also been stepping up procuring and trading of liquefied natural gas, having locked in large volumes of long-term supply deals with top exporters Qatar and the United States.
($1=7.23 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Chen Aizhu and Florence Tan; editing by Miral Fahmy)
