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Anger over oil firm's 'threats'
By Yang Jian |
September 27, 2012, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
SLAPPING his hands repeatedly on a table, a local government official yesterday angrily accused Sinopec, China's biggest oil company, of threatening provincial government departments and brazenly discharging pollutants into the sea off south China's Guangdong Province.
Zhou Quan, director of the province's Environment Inspection Bureau, shouted at a meeting: "It always threatens the government by claiming what it does is for the national economy and the people's livelihood .... The environment is people's true livelihood."
The meeting, held to announce the conclusion of an inspection campaign launched by the province's environmental protection authority, was broadcast on China Central Television.
Zhou said some government departments did not dare inspect or supervise Sinopec even after they found the company was discharging excessive pollutants.
The inspection campaign found that three subsidiaries of the oil company in Guangdong had been illegally discharging pollutants into rivers or were putting the environment at serious risk.
The Sinopec Dongxing petrochemical company in Zhanjiang City illegally discharged sewage through rain drainage system, and the environmental protection authority of Guangdong ordered it to suspend its production in May. However, the company later resumed production without permission, officials told the meeting.
Another subsidiary - New Sino-US - illegally dismantled its sewer system. Then it diluted the waste before discharging it into rain tunnels.
Meanwhile, officials said that Sinopec Guangzhou had stored a large amount of unidentified liquid in two of its emergency tanks, which could cause severe environmental pollution in the event of an accident.
"District departments have been inspecting the three companies many times but why had they never found any problem?" Zhang Zhimin, a leader of one of the campaign's inspection teams, said, implying that Sinopec had managed to make district-level governments stay silent on the issue.
"I think these issues should never happen to a major state-owned enterprise like Sinopec," Zhang told the meeting.
Sinopec topped an annual ranking of the biggest-earning Chinese enterprises for the eighth straight year with 2.55 trillion yuan (US$402 billion) revenue in 2011. It was followed in second place by another oil company, China National Petroleum Corp, which also reported revenue over 2 trillion yuan.
The CCTV broadcast of the meeting triggered anger among viewers, and Sinopec's stock price dropped by 1.5 percent on the Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection has reported 26 pollution cases in the first half this year with nine of them related to Sinopec or its subsidiaries, CCTV said yesterday.
In Shanghai, Sinopec Shanghai Gaoqiao Petrochemical Corp was fined 200,000 yuan in April 2011 for causing a toxic gas leak that affected many parts of the city.
The ministry has asked Sinopec to launch an overhaul of its plants and suspended the three Guangdong companies, CCTV said. District governments who failed to oversee the illegal actions of the plants will also be punished, it was reported.
Zhou Quan, director of the province's Environment Inspection Bureau, shouted at a meeting: "It always threatens the government by claiming what it does is for the national economy and the people's livelihood .... The environment is people's true livelihood."
The meeting, held to announce the conclusion of an inspection campaign launched by the province's environmental protection authority, was broadcast on China Central Television.
Zhou said some government departments did not dare inspect or supervise Sinopec even after they found the company was discharging excessive pollutants.
The inspection campaign found that three subsidiaries of the oil company in Guangdong had been illegally discharging pollutants into rivers or were putting the environment at serious risk.
The Sinopec Dongxing petrochemical company in Zhanjiang City illegally discharged sewage through rain drainage system, and the environmental protection authority of Guangdong ordered it to suspend its production in May. However, the company later resumed production without permission, officials told the meeting.
Another subsidiary - New Sino-US - illegally dismantled its sewer system. Then it diluted the waste before discharging it into rain tunnels.
Meanwhile, officials said that Sinopec Guangzhou had stored a large amount of unidentified liquid in two of its emergency tanks, which could cause severe environmental pollution in the event of an accident.
"District departments have been inspecting the three companies many times but why had they never found any problem?" Zhang Zhimin, a leader of one of the campaign's inspection teams, said, implying that Sinopec had managed to make district-level governments stay silent on the issue.
"I think these issues should never happen to a major state-owned enterprise like Sinopec," Zhang told the meeting.
Sinopec topped an annual ranking of the biggest-earning Chinese enterprises for the eighth straight year with 2.55 trillion yuan (US$402 billion) revenue in 2011. It was followed in second place by another oil company, China National Petroleum Corp, which also reported revenue over 2 trillion yuan.
The CCTV broadcast of the meeting triggered anger among viewers, and Sinopec's stock price dropped by 1.5 percent on the Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection has reported 26 pollution cases in the first half this year with nine of them related to Sinopec or its subsidiaries, CCTV said yesterday.
In Shanghai, Sinopec Shanghai Gaoqiao Petrochemical Corp was fined 200,000 yuan in April 2011 for causing a toxic gas leak that affected many parts of the city.
The ministry has asked Sinopec to launch an overhaul of its plants and suspended the three Guangdong companies, CCTV said. District governments who failed to oversee the illegal actions of the plants will also be punished, it was reported.
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