Two Chinese oil giants have decided to join hands with the Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa to build the first e-commerce portal for focusing specially on the demands of oil and gas industry in China.
PetroChina Company Limited, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Hutchison Whampoa Limited announced recently the signing of a memorandum of understanding for the launch of the portal.
In its first phase, the portal will establish a comprehensive e-marketplace for all oil and gas products and related services in China, according to Huang Yuan, president and CEO of PetroChina, China’s largest listed oil and gas company with a procurement volume of tens of billions of Renminbi.
Yuan said that the portal will provide trading, content, logistics, credit and other value-added services to oil and gas industry participants in China, and his company is committed to using the portal for a significant amount of its annual procurement.
As one of Asia’s leading value-creating clicks-and-mortar conglomerates, Hutchison Whampoa will bring to the partnership its international expertise in e-infrastructure and business-to-business initiatives.
In addition to PetroChina, CNPC and Hutchison Whampoa, which will have 35 percent, 25 percent and 25 percent of the new venture respectively, the other founding partners of the oil and gas portal will include China Construction Bank, BOCI Investment Limited and Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C.
“This is a classic example of old economy and new economy converging," Yuan told a press conference. “We recognize that the oil and gas industry will be transformed by the e-commerce revolution and we are determined to be at the forefront of this change," he said.
“Our involvement in this important e-commerce project complements our existing business-to-business initiatives in transport and logistics and we are excited about bringing to this partnership our knowledge in the access, ennoblement and e-commerce platform areas," said Canning Fok, group managing director of Hutchison Whampoa.
The next stage of the development will be selectinh and working with the best technology provider to provide the most flexible and scaleable technology platform for the portal, according to Fok.
(People’s Daily)
