Independent Chinese oil firms on hiring spree

Beijing

CHINESE independent oil companies are luring traders, marketers and risk managers away from dominant state behemoths, offering better pay and perks in a hiring spree triggered by the freeing up of China's crude import trade.

Global oil firms and commodity houses have also been raiding state giants such as Sinochem and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) for staff to help handle up to US$50 million a day in new crude flowing into China this year, and the cherry-picking of talent is likely just getting started.

China's independent "teapot" refiners, so called due to their small size, could be processing by the end of this year as much as a fifth of the crude imports of the world's No 2 oil consumer. Alre…