China's oil giant involved in ecological crisis
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E-mail CRI, September 17, 2014
Changqing Oilfield Company is reported to have caused a severe ecological crisis to some villages in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, China Economic Net reports.
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Tower that the Changqing Oilfield Company uses for water storage in northwest China's Shannxi Province. [Photo/ce.cn] |
This subsidiary of PetroChina has been conducting hydraulic fracturing in areas of the Gobi Desert for more than two decades.
Villagers have been struggling with a serious shortage of water since 1990 when the oil company began drilling for natural gas resources directed mainly at the urban consumer market in dozens of coastal cities in east China.
Many lakes where farmers used to get water have run dry since the operations began.
Exploitation of water resources, along with the use of surface water for oil-gas exploration purposes, is technically restricted in the north, according to China's water use policy.
However, the Changqing Oilfield Company has been drilling the underground water for industrial use out of northern deserts for 18 years.
Villagers launched a boycott to oppose the projects in 1993. This did not sway local authorities, who issued approval for the oil companies to conduct the operations. They also sent police to disperse the protests.
Massive conflicts and group petitions for compensation ensued in the following several years.
Apart from the water shortage, water pollution caused by hydraulic fracturing also weighs on the mind of residents.
Villagers in the affected areas say they are agonizing over the results of the ecological deterioration that results from this particular form of natural gas extraction.
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