Graft probe claims another Kunlun chairman
Natural gas firm loses second chairman to widening mainland investigation, with former Politburo member said to be the next target
PetroChina's natural gas distribution subsidiary Kunlun Energy has lost its second chairman in less than four months, amid wider anti-corruption probes into senior managers at the state-controlled oil and gas giant.
Wen Qingshan, who descended into Kunlun from ultimate parent China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) in late August to succeed Li Hualin as chairman, had resigned "due to personal matters", Kunlun said in a statement. Li was under investigation by "the relevant authority in China", Kunlun said in late August.
Hopefully this will be the last round of top management reshuffling
PetroChina yesterday also said Wen has resigned from his position as a supervisor due to "personal matters".
CNPC is the parent of PetroChina, which controls Kunlun. Both PetroChina and Kunlun are listed in Hong Kong.
Neither Kunlun's nor PetroChina's announcement said whether Wen was assisting any investigation into allegations against him or other executives.
A person familiar with the situation said this is because "more information is needed to support such a statement", adding the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission has made no such statement.