Sinopec shuts subsidiaries over pollution
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E-mail China.org.cn, September 28, 2012
China's petrochemical giant Sinopec has ordered three subsidiaries in Guangdong province to shut operations and correct problems that violate pollution regulations.
In a statement on Wednesday, the oil company said it will set up a special team to investigate its three Guangdong-based subsidiaries.
'People who are responsible for the subsidiaries will be seriously punished according to the investigation result,' the statement said.
The announcement followed local government accusations that three subsidiaries of Sinopec, one in Guangzhou and the others in Zhanjiang, have long been violating environmental rules despite repeated demands from pollution watchdogs for rectification.
Guangdong environment authorities Wednesday accused Sinopec’s three subsidiaries of openly disregarding local government's calls to stop its pollution practices.
'They always threaten the government by claiming that what they do is for the national economy and the people's livelihood!' Zhou Quan, director of the environment inspection bureau of the Guangdong Environmental Protection Department, shouted at a meeting.
Some government departments did not dare to inspect or supervise Sinopec even after they found the company was discharging excessive pollution, Zhou said.
The three companies have a combined oil refinery capacity of more than 18 million metric tons a year, according to local media report.
Sinopec Guangzhou, which operates a refinery petrochemical complex that can process 13.2 million tons of crude a year and produce 220,000 tons of ethylene a year, was found to have stored a large amount of an unidentified liquid in two of its emergency tanks.
'The tanks could cause severe environmental pollution in the event of an accident,' Zhou said.
Sinopec's Dongxing petrochemical company in Zhanjiang, of western Guangdong, was found illegally discharging sewage through its rain drainage system.
The Dongxing plant, which was originally a Sino-foreign joint venture founded in 1992, was officially taken over by Sinopec in 2002.
The environmental protection authority of Guangdong ordered it to suspend its production in May. However, it later resumed production without permission, Zhou said.
Another subsidiary, the New Sino-US Chemical, a polystyrene producer with a capacity of 100,000 tons a year in Zhanjiang, was accused of illegally dismantling its sewer system and diluting the waste before discharging it into rain tunnels.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection has reported 26 pollution cases in the first half of this year, with nine of them related to Sinopec or its subsidiaries, according to China Central Television.
In Shanghai, a Sinopec subsidiary was fined 200,000 yuan ($31,700) in April 2011 for causing a toxic gas leak that affected many parts of the city.
The government should set up a trade system for sewage discharge to encourage companies to introduce efficient emission reduction measures, an anonymous official with the Guangdong Environmental Protection Department suggested.
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