On August 6th, China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Beijing. Leaders of both sides attended the signing ceremony and reached a consensus on many issues concerning cooperation. The leaders were HU Wenming (chairman of CSSC), ZHOU Jiping (chairman of CNPC), LIAO Yongyuan (general manager of CNPC), WU Qiang and SUN Wei (deputy general managers of CSSC), ZHOU Mingchun (chief accountant of CSSC), YU Baocai and LIU Hongbin (deputy general managers of CNPC). WU Qiang and LIU Hongbin signed on the agreement.

According to the agreement, CSSC and CNPC will establish a long-term, extensive cooperation in many areas, such as ship design and manufacture, marine engineering equipment design, oil and gas products trade and storage, and financial services. Both sides will take advantage of their strengths in technology and develop domestic and overseas market. The signing of this strategic cooperation agreement marked the establishment of cooperative relationship between CSSC and CNPC, which will no doubt deepen the two sides’ contact and elevate their corporate competitiveness. 

In the signing ceremony, CSSC and CNPC had an extensive communication in their respective development and future cooperation prospects. HU Wenming introduced that the shipbuilding industry is a comprehensive industry supporting a nation’s maritime transport, ocean and defense forces development. As one of the most important corporations in the shipbuilding industry, CSSC has provided 70 more high value-added shipping products with high technology, the eco-friendly ship being an example. But in recent years, due to the influence of the international financial crisis, the maritime transport and shipbuilding industry are stagnant, facing the most severe challenge. In order to cope with this situation, CSSC has proposed many adaptations, which mainly include centering its core business on military needs and rearranging its business sections to ship maintenance, marine engineering, mechanical equipment, power equipment, information and control, and modern production services. HU Wenming pointed out that previous achievements of CSSC and CNPC meant that the sides have a huge cooperation possibility in other areas like oil and gas products trade and finance. They will collaborate on a multi-level basis and dedicate themselves to helping China become an ocean giant.

Then ZHOU Jiping gave a speech. He first stressed CSSC’s irreplaceable role in the shipbuilding industry, then he introduced CSSC’s fast growth in other areas such as trade, maritime transport, finance and bridge construction. As ocean power has become increasingly attractive to the world, CNPC is now engaging in developing the overseas market and the massive oil and gas energy storage in the ocean. Therefore, the respective strengths and the mutual needs of CSSC and CNPC have provided them with many cooperation opportunities, such as offshore oil and gas transportation, oil and gas trade, substitution of gas for oil, drilling platform construction, liquefied natural gas (LNG) filling stations construction, industrial standard establishment and financial services etc.

HU Wenming and other reprensentatives from CSSC also visited CNPC Oil and Gas Regulatory Center (Beijing) and had a brief understanding of the oil and gas transport control systems, "natural gas from west to east" pipeline network construction and related situations.