Sinopec Corp, China's state-owned oil and gas company, sees no immediate risk of asset impairment in Russia as a result of the Ukraine crisis, a top company executive said on Monday.
According to Reuters, Sinopec Group, the parent company of Sinopec Corp, has halted work on a new gas chemical project and natural gas marketing partnership, heeding a government call for prudence as sanctions on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine continue to grow.
"At the moment, the company's operations and business in Russia are generally going well, and there are no indicators of asset impairment," Sinopec President Yu Baocai told investors and reporters during a call following the release of the company's 2021 earnings.
Yu evaded inquiries about the company's interest in acquiring Russian oil and gas. Sinopec has been a major consumer of Russian crude oil, which is now available at deep discounts due to sanctions-averse buyers.
Sinopec, which posted its highest profit in a decade for 2021, will emphasize expanding oil and gas output in order to capitalize on rising oil prices, which have risen 51% this year amid fears of supply disruptions in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"Strong oil prices provide an excellent chance to increase oil and gas production and profitability," Sinopec Chairman Ma Yongsheng said, reiterating the company's long-term policy of maintaining "quite high" growth in natural gas production, which increased by 11% last year.
Ma stated that a portion of the record $31 billion in capital spending planned for 2022 would be used to make additional discoveries in geologically challenging shale oil and gas resources.
Separately, Sinopec committed to halving methane emission intensity - the ratio of methane emissions to natural gas throughput - by 2025, compared to 2020 levels.
Sinopec has made "amazing progress" in hydrogen energy, including building a hydrogen retail network and producing so-called green hydrogen using solar and wind energy, Ma added. He did not provide any additional details on that front.
Sinopec pledged last year to invest $4.6 billion in hydrogen energy by 2025, including the production of 1 million tonnes of green hydrogen between 2021 and 2025, an ambitious objective in light of the latest national target of 100,000-200,000 tonnes by 2025.
Moreover, the corporation stated that it increased crude oil and refined gasoline inventories by 30 billion yuan ($4.71 billion) over the previous year.
Notably, China is one of the top consumers of Russian oil and gas.
