Trade tensions between the world's two largest economies have seemingly eased, with China having pledged to buy more goods from the United States. And this includes the energy sector, consisting of crude oil and natural gas. Sinopec, the world's largest oil refiner, has called for increased cooperation with the U.S. CGTN's Wei Lynn Tang reports.

China is one of the biggest buyers of oil from the United States. With ongoing trade negotiations to reduce the US' trade deficit, the spotlight is on China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec on whether it will ramp-up imports of crude oil from the U.S.

The world's largest oil refiner says it's so far been insulated from any negative effects of trade frictions. Now it sees increased cooperation with the US.

LYU DAPENG, SPOKESPERSON CHINA PETROLEUM AND CHEMICAL CORPORATION "In Sinopec's case, we import over 60 percent of our crude oil for processing purposes. And because China does not produce enough, we will have to increase our imports. In 2017, our trading unit imported 5.57 million barrels of crude oil from the US, accounting for 10 percent of the country's crude oil exports. We are willing to strengthen cooperation with the US in this area. But keep in mind that we are a business entity after all, so any decision of who and where we buy from will be pricing and quality driven."

The company said the current state of oil prices is good, and that the firm hopes crude remains at around 60 to 80 US dollars a barrel.

Sinopec is one of China's business crown jewels--it was ranked third in the Fortune Global 500 companies list in 2017. The oil refiner was formed just a few years after China's opening up began. The company says it will continue to adapt to the changing world to become more internationalized.

LYU DAPENG, SPOKESPERSON CHINA PETROLEUM AND CHEMICAL CORPORATION "Our organisation is managed in a more institutionalized way now. We have a good board structure, board of supervisors, complete decision-making mechanism. More importantly, we seek to strengthen party-building, to provide support for enterprise development."

Sinopec held a Media Open Day on Friday, giving us a glance into its safe production command center, polypropylene and wastewater purification recycling plant at its Yanshan Petrochemical Center in southwest Beijing.

We were also taken around its Niu Kouyu Wetland Park, an integrated eco-friendly industrial sewage area.

The Yanshan Petrochemical Center has an oil refining capacity of 10 million tonnes a year.

LI GANG, CHIEF EXECUTIVE SINOPEC YANSHAN PETROCHEMICAL COMPANY "The Yanshan Petrochemical Center has taken the lead in continuously upgrading the quality of oil products in China. Going forward, we will explore ways to be more self-reliant, further innovate and pursue technological progress, while strengthening safety and environmental protection work--which is the core of our enterprise."

As China celebrates its 40 years of opening-up and reform, state-owned enterprises like Sinopec hope to continue to stand center-stage--in helping the country be at the forefront of globalization. WLT, CGTN, Beijing.