Tencent partners up with oil giant CNPC

Tencent Holdings Ltd succeeded in attracting the biggest oil and gas producer in China to its Internet Plus initiative.

The Chinese social networking giant inked a strategic partnership with China National Petroleum Corp on Wednesday to promote mutual developments by leveraging each other's advantages and resources.

Under the pact, the two heavyweights will cooperate on a wide range of areas from mobile payment, Internet finance, online-to-offline businesses, tourism to membership management.

Given the massive data PetroChina possesses in energy consumption, Tencent will also partner with the energy conglomerate on cloud computing and big data applications.

Wang Yilin, president of PetroChina, said it is an urgent task for petroleum enterprises to take advantage of the Internet to upgrade themselves because the industry is undergoing big transformations brought by cutting-edge technologies.

The tie-up came after Premier Li Keqiang put forward the Internet Plus strategy in March to encourage the application of the Internet in traditional industries such as manufacturing and energy to boost efficiency and productivity.

The two companies are already collaborating on online top-up services and online marketing through Wechat, a popular instant messaging platform run by Tencent.

Last year, PetroChina's total crude oil output reached 945.5 million barrels, up 1.4 percent compared with the previous year. Natural gas output reached 3.029 trillion cubic feet, up 8.1 percent from a year earlier.

Earlier this week, Tencent also joined hands with the Sichuan branch of the State Grid Corporation of China to improve the digital management of grid systems and offer better services to consumers.