(Shanghai, 20 May 2014) China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group.), a major global energy and chemicals company, and SIBUR, a leading Russian gas processing and petrochemicals company, today entered into a strategic cooperation agreement during a state visit by Russia's President Vladimir Putin to China.

       The arrangement provides for both parties to deepen strategic cooperation. As part of the cooperation, the parties will discuss potential expansion of trading operations and look into collaboration opportunities in gas processing and petrochemicals projects.

The parties believe that the strategic partnership between Sinopec and SIBUR will facilitate further strengthening of the companies’ leading market positions through sharing of joint expertise and resources.

Sinopec commented, "this partnership will help diversify and secure Sinopec's long-term sourcing of petrochemical products and expand Sinopec's overseas footprint, facilitating strategic collaboration and continual exchange of expertise".

SIBUR commented, "the partnership between SIBUR and Sinopec, a global chemical industry leader, will enable SIBUR to maximise the efficiency of new large-scale projects, expand its competencies and distribution markets, and support the Russian petrochemical industry to a new level."

The parties will engage in further discussions to determine the details of the strategic cooperation.

About Sinopec Group

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a fully integrated energy and chemical enterprise. Its principal business includes: exploring, developing, storing and transporting crude oil and natural gas; producing, transporting, trading and distributing and marketing refined products and chemical products. Sinopec Group is China’s largest manufacturer and supplier of petroleum and petrochemical products, and the second largest producer of crude oil and natural gas. Its refining and ethylene capacity rank No.2 and No.4 globally, and it has the third largest sales and distribution network world-wide. Sinopec Group is also ranked the 4th in Fortune Global 500 in 2013.

For more information, please go to www.sinopecgroup.com.

       About SIBUR

SIBUR is a uniquely positioned vertically integrated gas processing and petrochemicals company. SIBUR owns and operates Russia's largest gas processing business in terms of associated petroleum gas processing volumes, and is a leader in the Russian petrochemicals industry.

As of 31 March 2014, SIBUR operated 27 production sites located all over Russia, had over 1,400 large customers engaged in the energy, chemical, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), automotive, construction and other industries in approximately 70 countries worldwide and employed over 27,000 personnel.

Information source:Sinopec