Sinopec Engineering Incorporation (SEI) traces its origin back to 1953. It has repeatedly secured No.1 position in China’s Top 100 Survey & Design and EPC Enterprises Rankings. Ranked by authoritative ENR and China Construction Times China Top 60 Engineering Design Enterprises, SEI has claimed the championship eight times and six consecutive first places on China Engineering Consulting Association’s Top 100 EPC Enterprise List, maintaining leading comprehensive strength in China’s petrochemical engineering sector.
Over more than 70 years of development, SEI has finished engineering design and construction for over 3,000 refining and petrochemical units, harvesting remarkable accomplishments: 50 National Excellent Design Awards, 21 High-quality Project Awards, 19 Excellent EPC Awards and two FIDIC Awards globally recognized in international engineering consulting industry.
Per official introduction of SEI, the company was restructured through institutional reform combining legacy Sinopec Engineering Incorporation, Sinopec Beijing Design Institute (BDI) and Sinopec Beijing Petrochemical Engineering Company (BPEC). BDI and BPEC were evolved from China’s first professional refining and chemical design institutes founded in 1953, while the original SEI was an engineering coordination and management entity established after the founding of China Petrochemical Corporation.
BDI’s predecessor was the Design Bureau under Petroleum Administration General Bureau of Ministry of Fuel Industry founded in 1953, China’s very first professional refining design institute after the founding of PRC. It was built based on the General Bureau’s design department with technical professionals seconded from Northeast Petroleum Administration and Yumen Petroleum Administration.
In 1955, Ministry of Petroleum Industry was established on the basis of Petroleum Administration General Bureau. In 1956, the Ministry dissolved the Design Bureau and set up Beijing Design Institute of Ministry of Petroleum Industry. In the same year, to implement the dual development strategy of natural and synthetic crude oil, the Ministry founded Fushun Petrochemical Design Institute and Guangzhou Petrochemical Design Institute, dispatching dozens of core technical staff from Beijing Design Institute to support the two new entities.
During the Cultural Revolution, the institute’s functional departments and party-government management were reorganized into ten battalions under the institute’s revolutionary committee. In 1969, more than 150 employees were transferred to the May Seventh Cadre School in Qianjiang, Hubei Province. Later the ten battalions were consolidated into three comprehensive detachments: Detachment One stayed in Beijing to complete design work for Dongfanghong Refinery and foreign-aided projects; Detachment Two and Three relocated to Hubei, with Detachment Two undertaking design for various domestic refineries and Detachment Three responsible for No.5 Refinery (later Jingmen Refinery). Eventually Detachment Two, Three and one research detachment transferred from Beijing Research Institute of Petroleum formed an integrated Design & Research Brigade at the site of No.5 Refinery.
In 1971, the military administration committee of Ministry of Fuel and Chemical Industry arranged most remaining Beijing-based staff to join the Design Institute of Beijing General Petrochemical Works, and other personnel were incorporated into the newly founded General Planning & Design Institute under the ministry. The original Beijing Design Institute was split and suspended operation temporarily.
In 1973, technical personnel from former BDI stationed at Jingmen returned to Beijing to participate in the engineering campaign for Beijing General Petrochemical Works’ 300,000 tons/year ethylene project.
In 1975, Ministry of Fuel and Chemical Industry was restructured into Ministry of Petrochemical Industry, which was revoked in 1978 to re-establish Ministry of Petroleum Industry. Former BDI employees merged into Beijing General Petrochemical Works Design Institute returned to the independent Refining Design Institute. The institute underwent multiple name revisions: approved by State Council to rename as Beijing Petroleum Design Institute of Ministry of Petroleum Industry in 1980.
After the founding of China Petrochemical Corporation in 1983, the institute became a directly affiliated subsidiary and renamed successively to Beijing Petroleum Design Institute of China Petrochemical Corporation in the same year and Beijing Design Institute of China Petrochemical Corporation in 1984.
In 1985, BDI established Sino-US joint venture Hualu Engineering Co., Ltd together with US-based Lummus Company.
In 1991, the institute moved into its newly built office building in Xicheng District after 22 years of scattered office arrangement. The entity was officially titled Sinopec Beijing Design Institute in 1992.
From 1953 to 1992, BDI independently finished full-cycle design and technical service for 32 domestic and overseas refineries & petrochemical plants, 419 production units, 102 oil depots and 10 long-distance transmission pipelines.
BPEC shares identical origin with Huanqiu Engineering Company, tracing back to Chemical Industry Design Company under Chemical Administration Bureau of Ministry of Heavy Industry founded in 1953.
In early PRC years, design departments were set up under chemical industry administrations of Central Ministry of Heavy Industry, East China Military and Administrative Commission and Northeast People’s Government to collect industrial data, restore and renovate existing chemical manufacturing facilities. The nation’s first nationwide comprehensive chemical design firm was formally incorporated in 1953 as Chemical Industry Design Company under Ministry of Heavy Industry.
In October 1969, the military administration of Ministry of Fuel and Chemical Industry arranged large-scale staff relocation to Niangziguan in Shanxi Province, while three on-site design teams remained in Yanshan, Beijing to develop butadiene rubber, phenol & acetone and synthetic ammonia units, laying foundation for Beijing’s core petrochemical base construction.
In 1971, First Chemical Design Institute and Beijing Petroleum Design Institute were put under Beijing municipal administration and merged into Design Institute of Beijing General Petrochemical Works, marking China’s first integration of refining and chemical design resources: around 200 staff from petroleum design department kept original Beijing premises and over 400 employees from First Chemical Design Institute moved from Niangziguan to Yanshan. The institute evolved into China’s unique comprehensive design institute capable of both refining and petrochemical engineering with segmented workshop setup: Workshop One for refining design and Workshop Two & Three for petrochemical products.
In 1979, Ministry of Fuel and Chemical Industry split into Ministry of Petroleum Industry and Ministry of Chemical Industry; Workshop One (petroleum division) returned to BDI and the institute was renamed Design Institute of Yanshan Petrochemical General Corporation.
Upon the establishment of China Petrochemical Corporation in 1983, the institute was fully transferred under Sinopec’s jurisdiction in 1984 and restructured into Beijing Petrochemical Engineering Company of China Petrochemical Corporation as a pilot reform entity alongside Luoyang Refining Design Institute.
BPEC relocated its headquarters office three times: Shenggu Xizhuang in 1987, Weizikeng in 1991 and Yayuncun in 1996.
With Sinopec’s strategic support, BPEC founded multiple Sino-foreign joint ventures to align with international technologies in the 1980s and 1990s: Beijing Huafu Engineering Co., Ltd partnering with US Fluor in 1985 and Jingding Engineering with Taiwan CTCI in 1991.
Compared with BDI and BPEC, the original SEI was founded much later in 1985 by China Petrochemical Corporation to coordinate domestic EPC market and manage international project contracting & labor export business.
In the 1990s, SEI teamed with China National Petroleum Engineering Corporation on joint bidding and completed maintenance works for Ahmadi Refinery in Kuwait, securing first breakthrough in global petrochemical engineering market.
In 1999, original SEI, BDI and BPEC merged to establish the new Sinopec Engineering Incorporation (SEI). The initial restructuring plan covered six entities additionally including LPEC Luoyang Petrochemical Engineering Corporation, LDI Lanzhou Design Institute and GIDI Geotechnical Investigation & Design Institute: SEI, BDI and BPEC formed the core headquarters, LPEC & LDI operated as branch companies and GIDI functioned as affiliated geotechnical institute.
The integration consolidated Sinopec’s core domestic refining & chemical design capacity to compete with top-tier international engineering corporations after China’s WTO accession and laid the embryonic foundation of Sinopec Engineering Group (SEG). Eventually only SEI, BDI and BPEC achieved complete institutional integration to form today’s SEI entity, while the other three affiliates operated independently afterwards.
Post-restructuring, SEI optimized internal management and expanded global business footprint: ranked 56th among ENR Global Top 150 Design Firms and 64th on Global Top 200 International Contractors in 2002, topping all Chinese listed enterprises.
During China’s 11th Five-Year Plan (2006–2010), SEI realized explosive revenue and profit growth: total five-year operating revenue hit RMB 52 billion with gross profit of RMB 4.46 billion, annual revenue breaking RMB 10 billion and annual profit exceeding RMB 1 billion. According to 2023 China Top 60 Engineering Design Enterprises Ranking, SEI still retains leading design turnover nationwide.
Currently under Sinopec Engineering Group (SEG), SEI stands as the flagship subsidiary integrating full refining and petrochemical design capability.
China’s refining and chemical industries followed divergent technical development paths: core large-scale refining technologies originated from overseas study in Cuba and achieved independent development with China’s iconic five major refining process technologies under foreign technical blockade; most bulk petrochemical technologies were introduced, digested and localized via massive complete-set equipment import in the 1970s–1980s. Benefiting from complementary technical advantages of both sectors, Sinopec’s continuous large-scale project investment, advanced management and prime Beijing geographic location, SEI has grown alongside China’s booming petrochemical industry.
SEI is the core design institute for ExxonMobil Huizhou Ethylene Mega Project under ongoing construction.
An excerpt from an article written 20 years ago by former BPEC General Manager Zhang Xuzhi is shared below: “SEI’s core business focuses on refining and petrochemical design, yet core competitive edges in chemical engineering haven’t been fully built. To realize the goal of world-leading competence, we must attach strategic importance to young talents. Outstanding young professionals pursue both decent salary and personal career development. The company needs to develop proprietary core technologies and cultivate top-tier technical experts who can become domestic and global industry authorities. We should allocate dedicated manpower from daily routine work to consolidate core competitiveness.”
After over two decades, SEI has kept pursuing its founding aspiration. This article is compiled referencing Annals of Sinopec Beijing Design Institute (1953~1992), Annals of Sinopec Beijing Petrochemical Engineering Company (1953~1998) and published industry papers and news reports. Several unsolved historical questions remain open for industry discussion, such as why the six-party consolidation plan of 1999 was suspended and the subsequent establishment of Sinopec Engineering Group, plus the naming rule difference between “Sinopec” and “Sinopec Group” among SEG’s subordinate subsidiaries.
