Shares of world’s biggest oil refiner, Sinopec, plunge after suspension of two top executives in trading unit
- General manager Chen Bo and party secretary Zhan Qi have been suspended from their posts at China International United Petroleum & Chemicals, also known as Unipec
Shares of China Petroleum & Chemical (Sinopec), the world’s largest oil refiner, tumbled sharply on Thursday after the sudden suspension of two senior executives in its trading unit which incurred heavy losses.
The nation’s second biggest integrated oil and gas company said it has suspended general manager Chen Bo and party secretary Zhan Qi from their posts at China International United Petroleum & Chemicals, also known as Unipec. Party secretary is the title given to the top Communist Party representative within a state-owned company.
The unit’s deputy general manager Chen Gang will take over their roles, Sinopec’s spokesman said, declining to provide more details.
Government inspectors had been looking into the company’s operations for the last few years and had uncovered “severe trading losses in the second half of this year”, according to an unnamed source quoted by Reuters.
The Sinopec spokesman refused to be drawn on whether the suspensions were related to the reported losses. He said they were due to “work reasons”.