Asia's largest refiner China Petrochemical Corporation, or Sinopec Group, is open to the idea of liberalizing the domestic crude oil market and competition from independent refineries, Chairman Fu Chengyu was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
During the first meeting with "social watchers" at its headquarters in Beijing, Fu also said that Sinopec should not always focus on its refining losses as the company is profitable in its other businesses, the Beijing News daily reported.
The social watchers were hired by the company -- the state-owned parent of the listed arm China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. or Sinopec Corp. -- to strengthen communication with the public, help the company adapt to new digital media trends and develop means of communication to address public concerns.
"Sinopec does not communicate enough with the public. As a state enterprise, we must always accept public supervision and criticism," Fu said in his opening remarks.
Senior management from Sinopec discussed various topics with the team of seven social watchers, including competition from private refineries and local retail prices.
Private refineries, more commonly known as teapot refineries, have often said that they lacked competitiveness in China because the national oil companies controlled their crude oil supply.
China's 60-plus private refineries have a total refining capacity of over 80 million mt/year (1.61 million b/d), accounting for one quarter of the country's total.
Yet, these refineries often cannot obtain enough crude oil from Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corp., the country's top two oil refiners authorized by the government to import crude and reallocate to private refiners.
On the perception that the government is slow in slashing domestic retail prices for gasoline and diesel compared with the times when prices were raised following an increase in global crude oil prices, Sinopec officials said the fault lies with the pricing mechanism.
The report, however, did not elaborate further.
One industry watcher raised a point that a case in April, where a massive liquor bill incurred by one of its subsidiaries were posted online, has caused Sinopec's image to drop "many points."
To this, Fu replied: "We were slow in responding to the public by a week."
