China’s top Iran oil buyer hires ex-Sinopec trader

China’s state oil trader, Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp., which buys more Iranian crude than any other company in the world, has hired a former Sinopec Corp trader., Zhang Bai to beef up its products business. Zhang will work together with Zhenrong’s existing products team that operates from the southern province of Guangdong. Zhenrong Corp., one of China’s four state oil traders, supplies most of its Iranian oil purchases to Sinopec, Asia’s largest refiner, and has maintained an import amount with Tehran for years at around 240,000 barrels per day, or about 5% of China’s total crude oil imports last year. (February 16, 2011)