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Sinopec to cut capital expenditure in H2

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-08 15:07

China Petroleum and Chemicals Group (Sinopec) said it will cut capital expenditure this year in order to "reduce capital and investment risks to the greatest degree."

Wang Tianpu, president of the group's Hong Kong-listed vehicle Sinopec Corp, said in a report on the Sinopec website that international oil prices are likely to remain high and competition in the petrochemical sector is expected to intensify, putting the state-run oil refiner under even greater pressure.

He said that projects that have already been postponed would now be suspended completely, and the pace of other projects would also be adjusted.

"Non-urgent" projects will also be suspended, Wang said.

Wang made the remarks at a meeting on investments by listed and non-listed members of the Sinopec group. The need to trim investments and conserve cash would affect all members of the group.

Hong Kong-listed Sinopec Corporation reported a 77 percent decline in first-half profit as a result of surging crude costs and fixed domestic product oil prices.

Poor cash flow meant that the company has already cut its capex spending to 114 billion yuan in the first half, down from 122 billion yuan in the same period of last year.

Analysts have speculated that the poor first-half performance could lead to a slowdown in the development of the company's flagship oil and gas production projects at the Tahe oilfield in northwest China's Xinjiang region and the Puguang gas field in Sichuan in the southwest.