China National Chemicals Import and Export Corp. (Sinochem), one of China's four major oil firms, and France's Total have agreed to form a joint venture for establishing an oil product marketing network in east China, officials said Saturday.

According to officials of the State Council Commission for Supervision and Management of State-owned Assets, the two companies signed an agreement in Beijing on Sept. 29 for the establishment of the joint venture, Sinochem-Total Oil Co., Ltd.

Under the deal, the two companies will put nearly 100 million US dollars into the joint venture, with Sinochem holding 51 percent of the stakes, and Total, the remaining 49 percent.

A Sinochem official said that there is a market potential for finished oil products in China's economically-developed Yangtze River Delta area, and the joint venture will bring into full play the advantages of Sinochem and Total.

A decade ago, Sinochem and Total co-sponsored the Dalian West Pacific Refinery, the first of its kind in China. Last October, the two companies jointly invested 800 million yuan (nearly 1 million US dollars) to set up an oil product sales network in north China.