SINGAPORE - Hou Qijun has set out to transform Sinopec, the world's largest refiner, as it faces dwindling fuel demand, overcapacity in petrochemicals and the world's worst oil crisis, when he could be coasting into retirement like other Chinese State executives.

Appointed as Sinopec chairperson a year ago, Hou launched an overhaul to give greater authority to business units that he revamped into four profit centres: oil, gas and new energy, refining and chemicals, finance and strategic new business, and a segment combining global trading with Sinopec's vast marketing teams for fuel, natural gas and chemicals.

He outlined his thinking in unusually blunt language for a State enterprise chief in a government magazine in July.

"The biggest hurdles for such a self-revolutionary transformation lie not on technology, resources or markets, but the system and institutional inertia," Hou said in the July issue of a publication by China's powerful State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

"As the company grows in scale, its ability to respond to market changes becomes inadequate, and the 'big company syndrome' remains to be overcome," he said.

Sinopec referred to the SASAC publication when Reuters sought comment from Hou about his plans to revive the company.

Its fuel sales have dropped to 2017 levels and it faces an "uphill battle" to maintain domestic market share, the SASAC magazine said.

An executive with a Chinese institutional investor that owns shares in Sinopec said Hou, at 60, appears to be on a mission to "salvage Sinopec, which has been fighting for survival in a tight spot."

"Hou is among the few SOE executives who, despite being close to retirement age, is spirited and wants to make some changes," said the investor, declining to be named due to company policy.

Executives at Chinese State firms typically retire at 63.

TOUGH TIMES

On Sunday, Sinopec reported a 19% rise in net profit for the first half of 2026, despite its heavy exposure to oil supply disruptions due to the Iran war and government curbs on passing higher oil prices on to consumers.

Sinopec sold around 3.6-million barrels per day of gasoline and diesel last year according to company data, mostly at home, a scale that has become a liability as demand for transport fuels declines with widening vehicle electrification.

"Gasoline was made for cars, yet half of new cars no longer need fuel ... Under these circumstances, how can producing more gasoline and diesel continue to generate revenue?" Hou said at an earnings briefing in Hong Kong on Monday.

"We need to produce more chemical materials instead. In the long run, upstream oil and gas will likewise be replaced by new energy, from high-carbon, to low-carbon, to zero-carbon. Therefore, we must prepare early and develop new energy."

Sinopec plans to allocate about 20% of its capital spending, or more than 30-billion yuan ($4.46-billion) a year, on new energy and new materials over 2026 to 2030, he said.

In the SASAC report, Hou targeted completion of more than 30 projects by 2030, including growing reserves, producing shale oil, developing sustainable aviation fuel and cutting refining costs.

Such investments focus on "converting technology into productivity", he said, calling for "expediting execution".

The company's shift to higher-value petrochemicals faces fierce competition from rivals such as local government-backed Wanhua Chemical and privately-led Satellite Chemical as well as overcapacity in ethylene, a key building block in plastics and fiber.

PLAN 2030

In shale, Sinopec is set to start commercial development at the Jiyang trough, part of its flagship Shengli oilfield, where conventionally-accessible reserves are fast depleting. Hou told reporters in March he was the project's commander-in-chief.

As a geologist, he built his career at China's flagship Daqing oilfield and was general manager of Asia's largest oil and gas producer, China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), before moving to Sinopec in June 2025.

The Shandong native established his restructuring credentials combining the pipeline assets of China's three oil majors into a new State firm, PipeChina, which he ran from 2019 to 2021.

A company official described Hou as a "decisive, quick-in-action" workaholic who can speak "off-script for half an hour with conviction and logic".

With his experience at CNPC and PipeChina, he has a good grasp of the whole energy value chain and could capitalise on government backing for commercially challenging investments such as hydrogen and carbon capture, said Michal Maiden, director of the China program at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

"The question is how will Sinopec (and its peers) compete with the non-State actors in the new energy space," she said.