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Wang Tianpu
China

Wang Tianpu

President, China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec)

Place of Birth: Changyue, Shandong Province

When Sinopec Chairman Su Shulin stepped down this month, President Wang Tianpu was the favourite to take over China’s second-largest oil company, but his rise may be stymied. In a surprise appointment, on 8 April the Beijing government instead installed the head of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Fu Chengyu, as Sinopec’s boss – and also as Chairman and Communist Party Committee Secretary. Su Shulin has been tipped for the governorship of Fujian Province, an important step toward the national leadership. The Communist Party Politburo’s current number two (Vice-President Xi Jinping) and number four (Jia Qinglin) both held the Fujian post on their way to the top.

At CNOOC, Fu was Chairman of the smallest of China’s three oil majors – but under his tenure, the most dynamic. The move is salutary for the future prospects of Sinopec and Chairman Fu, but not for the ambitions of Wang, the loyal oilman.

Wang is a native of Changyue, in Shandong Province. Born in 1962, he took a bachelor’s degree in organic chemical engineering at the Qingdao Chemical Engineering School. He later earned an MBA from Dalian University of Technology (1996) and a PhD in chemical engineering at Zhejiang University.

In 1999, Wang became Vice-President of Qilu Petrochemical, which later became a Sinopec subsidiary. He moved quickly up into the parent company, making Vice-President of Sinopec in 2001 and President in 2006. Sinopec announced a US$11 billion profit in 2010, up 14% on 2009 but still under target. Though most of Sinopec’s income derives from refined products, it finds greater margins in exploration and production. In the upstream sector, it lags far behind its rivals, with African interests only in Angola, Gabon and Nigeria.