Sinopec Drives High-Quality Growth in Petrochemical Industry with Innovation and Efficiency

BEIJING: Ma Yongsheng, Chairman of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation stated at the forum for petrochemical industry development trends under the context of "Dual Carbon" goals (the "Forum") hosted on July 22 in Beijing that China's petrochemical industry is facing profound adjustment and transformation in times of change.

Global and domestic oil demand will peak along with China's commitment to reach Carbon neutrality by 2060 and reach peak Carbon emissions by 2030, according to Ma. As a result, China will have excess production capacity for many main chemical goods. To meet the challenges, the petrochemical industry must take the initiative to speed up transformation and upgrading and investigate a high-quality development route focused on creating competitive advantages.

Sinopec has implemented eight significant Carbon peaking activities to support the energy transformation through the implementation of "Energy Efficiency Improvement" strategy and "Green Enterprise Action." Greater than 1.5 million tons of Carbon dioxide were collected by Sinopec in 2022. It has carried out 5,000 projects since introducing the "Energy Efficiency Improvement" plan in 2014, saving 8.36 million tons of regular coal.

Sinopec is actively adjusting the energy structure to achieve clean energy development goals, laying out numerous energy sectors to achieve complementary growth, advancing Project Deep Earth with ongoing advancements in shale gas and shale oil exploration and production, strengthening the oil and gas production, supply, storage, and sales mechanisms, consolidating its leading position in geothermal heating, and utilizing waste heat while advancing the industrial revolution.

Its green Hydrogen pilot project in Kuqa, Xinjiang, is the first and largest solar-to-Hydrogen green Hydrogen facility in China, with an annual capacity of more than 10,000 metric tons and is part of a race to produce green Hydrogen. Sinopec has launched the Inner Mongolia Erdos Wind-Solar Green Hydrogen Project, which is the world's largest green hydrogen-coal chemical project.

Sinopec's Yuanba Gas Field, the first 7,000-meter-deep ultra-high sulfur biohermal gas field in the world, recently produced more natural gas than 30 billion cubic meters, resulting in a 40-million-ton reduction in Carbon emissions.

Sinopec is actively encouraging the use of biomass pellets as a partial substitute for coal. They are also expanding the adoption of electric equipment for drilling, fracturing, well repair, and other operations. Additionally, they are investing in clean energy projects such as photovoltaic and wind power to support large-scale green and low-carbon operations and promote the utilization of clean energy.

To further increase resource utilization effectiveness, the company has increased its efforts in greenhouse gas emission reduction and high-concentration Carbon dioxide recovery. In 2022, it finished China's first megaton Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) project, the Qilu-Shengli Oilfield CCUS, flooded more than 650,000 tons of Carbon dioxide into oil reservoirs, and started operating its first high-pressure Carbon dioxide transmission pipeline to move the captured Carbon dioxide from the CCUS project for further displacement, storage, and well stimulation.

Sinopec is enabling energy transformation using cutting-edge, eco-friendly, and low-Carbon technologies to advance the petrochemical industry's high-end, intelligent, and environmentally friendly development. It has established low-permeability reservoirs with CO₂ driven displacement and storage, high-efficiency waterflooding in reservoirs with medium to high permeability, cold production of thick oil, and multi-sector energy integration of wind, solar, geothermal energies, among other things.