29 December 2912, Sweetcrude, London – Chinese state-owned Sinopec Group on Friday launched a new oilfield services division to compete for global engineering and construction business, with a possible stocklisting lined up for the unit.
The giant division, named Sinopec Oilfield Service Corporation, has been formed from the consolidation of service departments for eight oilfields and will be responsible for executing overseas contracts worth a total of $14.2 billion, Sinopec said in a statement.
The unit, with 140,000 employees, has 76.6 billion yuan ($12.3 billion) worth of fixed assets and its revenue this year is estimated at 95 billion yuan, according to the group.
Sinopec is looking to target lucrative overseas oilfield services work through the newly created division, competing with heavyweights such as Saipem and Technip, as it expands its exploration and production activities abroad.
It is already a major player in China’s oilfield services market along with China National Petroleum Corporation and China Oilfield Services Ltd, which together hold a reported 80% share of the sector.
Earlier this year, Sinopec formed an engineering and construction division for its refining and petrochemicals business called Sinopec Engineering, which state media has reported will be listed in Hong Kong by 2014.
A company official was reported as saying by Reuters that both units will eventually be listed, though no definite timeline for the listings has yet been determined.
