They said the country's second largest oil company, which is seeking theRoyal Dutch Shell Group as a strategic partner, was still in talks withother international companies in a bid to broaden its investmentappeal before the much anticipated international public offering.

"We won't be confining ourselves to only one partner," a senior ChinaPetrochemical Corp (Sinopec) official told Reuters from Beijing.

Sources said the planned billion-dollar initial public offering could takeplace as early as September.

China's oil IPO debutant, PetroChina, had after a dismal debut in Aprilchalked up impressive gains and renewed the confidence of other IPOaspirants.

Sinopec started courting oil majors in earnest after BP Amoco bought a 20percent stake in PetroChina during its $3.1 billion initial publicoffe r.

The sources said Sinopec was able to attract the attention of top oilcompanies by promising them a stake in its highly profitable retail sectorbusiness, and in return receive much needed capital and expertise.

The oil majors are in talks with Sinopec to either jointly build or buyretail stations in South and east China owned by Sinopec to operate thecountry's largest network of petrol stations.

"Partnership with multinationals are essential to our stock offer...and wecherish those who have cooperated with us in the past years," the officialsaid.

China-based foreign oil executives said, unlike Shell, Exxon Mobil was notexpected to take up equity stakes in the Sinopec initial public offe r butinstead use its role in a planned $3 billion investment in Fujian asleverage.

"It seems not part of the corporate culture for Exxon to be an equityinvestor. It would most likely make the best out of its Fujian project,"said an official with an oil major.

Sinopec, Exxon Mobil and Saudi Aramco aim to build a 164,000 barrel-per-dayrefinery and a 600,000 tonnes-per-year ethylene plant in the South ChinaFujian province.

Exxon Mobil and Saudi Aramco would each have a 25 percent stake, withSinopec holding 50 percent.

The Sinopec official said a joint venture retail deal may not have to waituntil the Fujian project takes off.

"It may come before the project takes off, so long as both parties believeit is to our mutual benefit," the Beijing-based official said, but declinedto comment on when and the scale of the joint venture retail network.The new refinery and ethylene plant, pending state approval, would only comeon stream in 2003 or 2004, industry sources said.

Exxon Mobil operates 33 petrol stations in China, the bulk of which arejoint ventures with a Sinopec Guangdong marketing subsidiary.