A former senior vice president at top Asian oil refinery Sinopec Corp has officially taken office as the new head of state-run Sinochem Group, officials at the two companies said on August 26. Cai Xiyou, Sinopec's vice president in charge of oil trading and sales, replaces 61-year-old Liu Deshu, president of Sinochem Group since 1998. Liu will become chairman of the group, sources at Sinochem told Reuters.
Cai, 52, is a 30-year oil industry veteran and was previously a manager at Jinzhou and WEPEC refinery, head of Sinopec's fuel sales division, president of Sinopec's trading arm Unipec, and chairman of Sinopec Engineering (Group) Co Ltd Sinochem Group, formerly China's monopoly oil trader until 1993, has diversified businesses in oil refining, chemicals trading, oil and gas explorations and real estate development.
The group formally started operating a 240,000 barrels per day refinery in July in south-east China, the group's first fully owned oil refining asset in China.