Top Chinese blasts national oil firms
BEIJING, March 10 (UPI) -- A top Chinese official has asked the country's oil giants to reduce exports so domestic supply can be stabilized.
"Customs statistics showed that in the first six months last year, China exported 7.59 million tons of oil products, a year-on-year increase of 48.6 per cent," said Guo Rongchang, a member of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top advisory body. "It means that while domestic consumers were suffering from the 'oil thirst,' our petroleum companies were selling a large quantity of their products abroad.
His comments, which came on the sidelines of the annual full session of the advisory body, were reported by the official Xinhua news agency.
He said Chinese companies were exporting oil because the domestic oil price increase was slower than on the world market, and the companies had misjudged the development trends of world oil price, with the hope of buying back oil when prices started to fall.
Oil companies were still the biggest winners, he said.
In 2004, PetroChina and Sinopec had combined profits of more than $25 billion. In the first half of 2005, PetroChina recorded a profit of 12.86bn dollars, Xinhua quoted Guo as saying. Profits were natural, he said, but the firms needed to keep the national interest in mind.
"As state-controlled enterprises which exercise a complete monopoly of the oil sector, the Chinese petroleum companies must also take into account the interests of the country and the people," he said.
He accused the oil giants of failing to perform their public obligations properly, and said the country should carry out more effective supervision over and impose stricter restrictions on the monopoly sector.
"The excessive pursuit of profits and other egoistic activities by the monopoly companies must not be indulged," he said.
"Customs statistics showed that in the first six months last year, China exported 7.59 million tons of oil products, a year-on-year increase of 48.6 per cent," said Guo Rongchang, a member of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top advisory body. "It means that while domestic consumers were suffering from the 'oil thirst,' our petroleum companies were selling a large quantity of their products abroad.
His comments, which came on the sidelines of the annual full session of the advisory body, were reported by the official Xinhua news agency.
He said Chinese companies were exporting oil because the domestic oil price increase was slower than on the world market, and the companies had misjudged the development trends of world oil price, with the hope of buying back oil when prices started to fall.
Oil companies were still the biggest winners, he said.
In 2004, PetroChina and Sinopec had combined profits of more than $25 billion. In the first half of 2005, PetroChina recorded a profit of 12.86bn dollars, Xinhua quoted Guo as saying. Profits were natural, he said, but the firms needed to keep the national interest in mind.
"As state-controlled enterprises which exercise a complete monopoly of the oil sector, the Chinese petroleum companies must also take into account the interests of the country and the people," he said.
He accused the oil giants of failing to perform their public obligations properly, and said the country should carry out more effective supervision over and impose stricter restrictions on the monopoly sector.
"The excessive pursuit of profits and other egoistic activities by the monopoly companies must not be indulged," he said.
posted by Marko at 3/10/2006 12:39:00 PM
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