Fake “Sinopec” makes bid for Sudan oil
SHANGHAI, China, March 24, 2004 (Interfax-China) — China’s largest oil refining company, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec Corp.) has posted an announcement declaring that it had nothing to do with a bid put in for Nile Blend crude oil produced in Sudan under the name of “Sinopec”.
Instead, a foreign firm using the name of “Sinopec China Petrochemical Corp.” made the bid to purchase the Nile Blend crude, and “it turned out that this was a crooked company pretending to be connected with Sinopec,” said a spokesman surnamed Mao with Unipec, the trading arm of Sinopec Corp., speaking to Interfax.
The senior vice president of Sinopec Corp. Mou Shulin declared in a public statement that the company had not authorized the “Sinopec China Petrochemical Corp.”, or its associated employees, to represent Sinopec Corp. in the tender for Nile Blend crude oil.
The misunderstanding on the Sudanese side has now been cleared up, and Sinopec Corp. claims to “reserve our legal rights against any person or company who fraudulently misrepresents us.”
“No substantial financial damages have been made,” Mao said. “But we will keep watching it and paying attention to any development.”
Unipec, with the full name of China International United Petroleum and Chemicals Co. Ltd., is the sole representative of Sinopec Corp. during any business conducted by the company with the Sudanese Petroleum Corp. (SPC), stressed the Sinopec announcement. Unipec is also one of China’s four state-owned oil importing firms.
Sinopec Corp. spokeswoman Yan Huirong in Beijing told Interfax, “The listed company (Sinopec Corp.) should have no business in Sudan at present, as far as I know.”
The other state-owned oil company and biggest oil producer in China, China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) currently holds a stake in the Nile Blend oilfields of Sudan. The North African country is CNPC’s largest overseas oil production base. The Sudanese state oil firm issued a tender to sell 10 mln barrels of the medium-sweet Nile Blend crude from April to June in February this year.