Shaanxi software company set to expand abroad

Shiwen Software Co Ltd, the Shaanxi province-based oil exploration software firm, has revealed good progress in plans to expand overseas into areas linked with the Belt and Road Initiative.

Zhang Xiaohui, its chief executive officer, said the initiative is already bringing about closer economic, trade and infrastructure connectivity between China and Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East, and will certainly benefit specialist software providers such as his.

Already Shiwen is in advanced talks, he said, with a leading foreign energy company with regards to the signing of a procurement contract.

Zhang said demand is strong for oil industry-related software services in countries including Turkmenistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, and he expects to expand its business in those areas in the coming years.

With global crude oil prices hovering around half of what they were a year ago, Zhang said it would be a "satisfactory" result if the company can maintain revenue and profit during this year.

Last year Shiwen - created in 2001 and now operating out of Xi'an's Software Park - recorded revenue of around 30 million yuan ($4.8 million).

Shaanxi is one of China's major oil-producing regions, and so offers Shiwen a strong number of local industry-related clients.

The fall in crude prices, however, has put it and others under pressure to maintain income levels, said Zhang, adding that the company has to shift its focus from domestic to foreign markets.

Li Yan, an oil analyst with domestic industry consultancy Shandong Longzhong Information Technology Co Ltd, said most of the world's upstream exploration companies have cut production in line with falling prices, and this has seriously dented downstream oil services suppliers.

"Shiwen is moving in the right direction, since the oil services market in Central Asia offers more potential compared with the United States and Europe, for instance," Li said. "The Belt and Road Initiative will bring opportunities, as the markets involved will grow."

China's three top oil companies - China National Petroleum Corp, China National Offshore Oil Corp and Sinopec Group - have all said their subsidiaries focusing on oil services are working flat out to make up for falling crude prices, particularly on software engineering.

"Those three giants offer China's best oil-services technology, meaning the market share for private companies such as Shiwen is limited," Li said.

Sinopec Oilfield Service Corp, the services arm of Sinopec, Asia's biggest refiner, reported a net deficit of 1.38 billion yuan for the first half.