Sinopec is working with Aliyun to roll out a series of cloud and big data services

Aliyun, Alibaba’s cloud services division is working with China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) to roll out a set of cloud-based services and big data technologies to enable the firm to improve is exploration and production operations.

In a statement to BCN the companies said they will work together to roll out a “shared platform for building-based business systems, big data analytics” and other IT services tailored to the petroleum industry.

“We hope to be able to use Alibaba’s technology and experience in dealing with large-scale system architecture, multi-service data sharing, data applications in the large-scale petrochemical, oil and chemical industry operations,” Sinopec said.

The two companies also plan to explore the role of cloud and big data in connected vehicles.

Just last month Aliyun opened its first overseas datacentre in Silicon Valley, a move the Chinese e-commerce giant said will bolster its appeal to Chinese multinational companies.

The company has already firmed up partnerships with large multinationals including PayPal and Dutch electronics giant Philips. The company has five datacentres in China.

It would seem a number of large oil and gas firms have begun to warm to the cloud as of late. Earlier this week Anadarko Petroleum Corporation announced it had signed a five year deal that would see the firm roll out PetroDE’s cloud-based oil and gas field evaluation analytics service.