Watch out: PetroChina International is coming!

PetroChina International is the trading arm of PetroChina Company Ltd, a listed unit of state giant CNPC and Asia’s largest oil and gas producer. It is one of the world’s largest global commodity trading companies.

It engages in the import, export, and transit trade of crude oil, refined products, natural gas, and petrochemicals, as well as energy-saving and other businesses. Its trading activities include oil refining, blending, storage, transportation, and wholesale and retail.

Right now, PetroChina is set to take on global rivals in major expansion drive. Its oil and gas trading arm, Chinaoil, aims to buy petrol stations and fuel storage facilities, setting up business in West Africa, Brazil and Pakistan in a major global expansion aimed at taking on international rivals.

The ambitious drive is taking shape eight months after Tian Jinghui, a vice president at PetroChina, took over the reins at PetroChina’s trading vehicle.

The aim is to have a foothold in emerging markets and grow market share locally, with fuel supplies from refineries PetroChina operates globally as well as barrels exported from China where demand is slowing in a moderating economy.

It is also aimed at tapping the transportation fuel market in those regions, where demand is growing faster than the global average. In West Africa, it already has its sights on Nigeria and Angola.

“Supplies to these markets have over the past been done through random tenders or ad-hoc business trips, that do not guarantee the company winning the deals,” said an executive.

The new investments are expected to start as soon as next year, and mimic the moves the world’s top oil merchants Vitol and Trafigura have made recently, spending billions to buy up thousands of petrol stations in Africa, Pakistan and Turkey.

Young staff from PetroChina’s massive domestic marketing team were sent on a three-month English course earlier this year as candidates for potential new overseas postings. These will be new additions to the 300-strong trading and marketing team PetroChina now has mainly in global trading hubs in Singapore, London and Houston.

Chinaoil currently procures and trades nearly 7 million barrels of oil a day (bpd), including 4.8 million bpd of crude oil and 2.2 million bpd of oil products. That exceeds Vitol’s 6 million bpd.

FRANK UZUEGBUNAM