PetroChina President Zhou Jiping, architect of a major overseas investment push, has been appointed chairman of China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), state news agency Xinhua said. Zhou, 60, remains vice chairman and president of PetroChina , the listed arm of CNPC and China’s dominant oil and gas producer.
Last August he said PetroChina would spend more than 100 billion yuan ($16.16 billion) on overseas exploration, acquisitions and joint ventures with international oil companies in 2012. Chinese oil firms, which also include Sinopec Group, parent of Asia’s largest refiner Sinopec Corp, have aggressively snapped up energy assets to secure reserves to meet future demand from the world’s second-largest economy.