(Yicai) June 30 -- China Petroleum and Chemical, the state-owned energy giant better known as Sinopec, has appointed Hou Qijun, general manager of competitor China National Petroleum, as its new chairman to succeed Ma Yongsheng.

Sinopec did not disclose the reason why Ma stepped down from the post in the Beijing-based company’s recent announcement. Born in September 1961, May has surpassed the mandatory retirement age of 63 for chairpersons of China’s central state-owned enterprises.

Hou has spent most of his career in senior management roles at China National Petroleum and its unit's oilfields, mainly working at the firm's headquarters in Beijing after 2011. He became vice GM in 2017 but left China National Petroleum to step in as GM of the newly established National Pipeline Network Group before returning as GM in 2021.

Ma started his career at China National Petroleum before joining Sinopec in 1998, emerging as one of its key early managers in upstream operations. The International Asteroid Center named an asteroid after Ma in 2017 in recognition of his contributions to the theory and practice of oil and natural gas exploration.

Earlier this month, China National Offshore Oil, another petroleum giant, named Zhang Chuanjiang, ex-GM of power giant China Datang, as its new chairman.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev