58-year-old is first non-government official to lead SOE regulatory body

Jiang Jiemin, chairman of China National Petroleum Corp, has reportedly been named as the new head of the country's top State-owned assets regulatory body after a two-year tenure as chief of China's largest oil and gas producer and supplier.

He will likely become the third chief in charge of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, established in 2003 to regulate 118 central State-owned enterprises (SOEs), according to local media reports.

Jiang, 58, is the first enterprise executive to be promoted to the position, rather than a government official.

PetroChina Co Ltd, the listed arm of CNPC and China's largest listed oil company by capacity, of which Jiang was also chairman, issued a statement late on Monday to say that Jiang had resigned as its head due to a "change in work".

PetroChina's vice-chairman, Zhou Jiping, will take over from Jiang as the company's chairman, the statement said.

An anonymous source from SASAC said an official statement about the change in personnel within the commission will be made later. There was no official confirmation on Wednesday.

Wang Yong, former head of SASAC, has been named a state councilor.

Thanks to his rich experience in business management, Jiang is expected to carry forward SASAC's functional shift from being the controller of, to being a service provider for, central SOEs, experts said.

"Being familiar with SOE reform, including business integration and restructuring and well as the (stock market) listing process, the new leader of SASAC will be able to cast an enterprise executive's eye on the government's supervisory work, pushing forward the reform of central SOEs," said Yu Bin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Since joining Shandong Shengli Oilfield Co as a technician in 1972, Jiang has been in the petroleum industry, apart from four years working as vice-governor of Qinghai province between 2000 and 2004. Jiang became chairman of CNPC in April 2011.