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Flies and Tigers | 抓蝇打虎

Assets chief sacked as oil industry probe intensifies
国务院国资委原主任、党委副书记蒋洁敏被免职

By Richard Fu | September 4, 2013, Wednesday | Print Edition

China yesterday removed Jiang Jiemin as its chief state assets supervisor as a graft probe into the oil industry widens, two days after officials announced an investigation into him.

Jiang had been chairman of PetroChina and parent company China National Petroleum Corp before he moved up to head the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. He was put was under investigation for suspected “severe disciplinary violations,” according to a Sunday announcement.

Jiang’s downfall follows confirmation last week that his four former colleagues at PetroChina and CNPC were also being investigated for disciplinary violations.

Jiang took over as the director of the assets regulator in March. The agency oversees China’s state-owned companies, including the CNPC.

Jiang is the latest high-ranking official to be sacked since President Xi Jinping took over as Party chief last November.

Xi has made fighting widespread corruption a key campaign of his leadership so far, with promises to target both junior and high-level officials.

The probe suggests that Xi and Premier Li Keqiang are making a stab at tackling the powerful state-owned industries and their allies who reformers say have hamstrung the government.

The probe into China’s oil giant also has extended to one of the energy industry’s richest self-made entrepreneurs, Hua Bangsong, chairman of Shanghai-based Wison Engineering Services Co, a PetroChina supplier.

Wison said Hua was “assisting the relevant authorities” in their investigations.

Hua, a Jiangsu Province native who founded Wison Engineering in 1997, is worth US$1.2 billion, according to Forbes.

In a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday, Wison Engineering said it had noted recent press reports about its business relations with PetroChina, but didn’t elaborate.

A spokesman declined further comment on the relationship.

The company operates legally and completed the necessary compliance check before its Hong Kong listing, its filing said.

In a listing document when it went public last year, Wison said PetroChina and its subsidiaries made up 63 percent, 80 percent and 58 percent of its total revenue in the three years ending 2011. That fell sharply to 14 percent in the first half of 2012.

Wison said it was operating normally and would continue to service its existing contracts. The company’s shares have been suspended from trading since a 16 percent slump on Monday morning.

Although PetroChina was one of its biggest customers in previous years, its revenue from contracts with the company and its subsidiaries in the first half of 2013 was not a huge sum, Wison said in the filing.

“The group’s revenue recognized from contracts with PetroChina and its subsidiaries for the six months ended June 30, 2013 was insignificant,” Wison said in its filing.

Wison provided engineering, procurement and construction services to PetroChina and other domestic and foreign companies in China.

Its website shows many members of its board and senior management team are Chinese oil industry veterans, including former officials at CNPC.

The PetroChina projects included refining and petrochemical complexes in the southwestern province of Sichuan and northwestern region of Xinjiang, and a refining project in the northeastern city of Dalian, according to Wison’s website.

 

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