Mr. Byron Grote in the interview

Mr. Byron Grote (right), Dr. Dirks (middle) and Ms. Quinn (left)

"We love the wonderful economic environment in Guangdong, and we will continue to invest here in sectors like petroleum and chemical engineering," says Mr. Byron Grote, Managing Director & Chief Financial Officer of the BP Group.

"Guangdong has very good infrastructures, and pays much attention to education. It also has particular foresights for taking measures to encourage industrial integration.

"In Zhuhai, for instance, our PTA project has been closely integrated with industries like chemical fiber. BP's investment in Zhuhai brings not only capital but also the top technology in the world, so we hope this will establish solid basis for our future investment here." Says Mr. Grote when receiving an interview with Southcn.com (Chinese version for newsgd.com) and Guangdong Radio on November 2nd, accompanied by Dr. Gary Dirks, president of BP Group China and Ms. Anna Quinn, vice president of the Group.

One billion USD investment in Guangdong

Q: We understand that China has been the third largest market for BP in the world, just following USA and Europe. You announced in Zhuhai two months ago that BP is to invest three billion USD in China, in a hope to make BP the biggest foreign enterprise in China's petrochemical sector. Could you release some details of this plan?

B (Byron): Up till now, the investment of BP in China has exceeded four billion USD, among which more than one billion USD are in Guangdong. In the next five or six years, we plan to invest a further three billion USD in China. The investment in Guangdong will be doubled. Dr. Gary Dirks will give more details about this.

D (Dr. Gary Dirks): As Mr. Byron says, our investment in Guangdong focuses on several aspects, such as the PTA project in Zhuhai, the LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) project, the project of building gas stations co-invested with CNPC (China National Petroleum Corporation), as well as the Guangdong LPG project. Our input will certainly continue to expand. Now we are also doing research on possibilities of expanding our investment, and our investment this time might even exceed one billion.

Q: As an important partner of Guangdong's LNG project, how would BP evaluate the future of the LNG industry?

B: We would like to express our honor for being the first partner of the LNG project in China. The most exciting thing for us is that these projects bring to Guangdong more purified resources so that the power station in Guangdong can provide resources in a cleaner way.

A (Ms. Anne Quinn): The process of Guangdong's LNG project is undergoing satisfactorily. Our next step is to establish joint companies to start the main projects.

"We will have better cooperation with China."

Q: We know that great changes have taken place in the future of international resources market. How will BP, with its projects in China, face the challenge such as price fluctuations of gas?

B: We are not going to estimate the price of gas. It is too dangerous to do that, as we cannot forecast the rise-and-fall of supplies and demands. We will have reforms in our structure to diminish the price influence to greatest extent. It is actually good for the BP Group as well as for its Chinese partners.

Q: How do you appreciate the role China's oil gas and petrochemical sectors play in the economic development of China?

B: The petrochemical industry is one of the important steps in the whole industrial development. China should establish a strong petrochemical industry of its own. Together with Chinese partner, BP hopes to establish chemical and engineering factories in China to meet the demands of large numbers of chemical and engineering products brought by the tremendous economic development in the recent years.

The petrochemical industry experienced a difficult time in the world during the last several years. Now we find that China is the unique highlight market, mainly for its tremendous development of economy and its large demands in the petrochemical sector.

Editor: Catherine