New chairmen have been named for the country's top three State-owned oil companies as the sector faces a range of challenges including low global crude prices, industrial reform, a need for improved growth and the fallout from President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign.

Wang Yupu, 59, deputy head of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, is replacing Fu Chengyu as chairman of Sinopec Group, Asia's largest refiner, the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China announced on Monday.

However, the strategic path followed by the huge enterprise is likely to remain unchanged as the country deals with rising dependence on foreign supplies of crude, said Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University.