Sinopec Is Planning the Wrong Spinoff

Shareholders in China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., the giant oil refiner known as Sinopec, have little to complain about this year. At the same time, the strength of first-half earnings should remind the company’s new Chairman Dai Houliang how little investors are buying Sinopec’s story. Pure-play refiners such as Reliance Industries Ltd., Phillips 66, Marathon Petroleum Corp., Valero Energy Corp. and S-Oil Corp. typically have valuations at about double that level.