Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) – 26/02/2008
(MENAFN – Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) The petrochemical project of the state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC) and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp’s (Sinopec) in southern China, worth USD five billion, is still under serious evaluation by environmental authorities, official media reported in Beijing Tuesday.
“The massive petrochemical base planned for construction in Guangzhou’s Nansha district will be less polluting than people believe and is still under the State’s environmental assessment,” Liu Jianwei, deputy director of the Nansha district government, was quoted by the China Daily as saying.
Liu did not disclose when the project was scheduled to commence building, according to the daily.
The Sinopec-Kuwait oil refinery and chemical project, with a planned investment of USD five billion, will be the largest joint venture in China.
Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), the international refining and market arm of KPC, has formed the joint venture with China’s biggest oil refiner Sinopec Corp. to construct the integrated complex.
The refinery will be designed to process 100 percent Kuwaiti crude supplied by KPC, with a capacity of 13 million tons per year, or 260,000 barrels per day (bpd), while the ethylene cracker unit is slated to have an annual production capacity of one million tons. The KPI-led consortium also includes Kuwait Petrochemicals Company (PIC) and foreign partners such as Dow Chemical Co. of the US.
“The plant in the provincial capital of Guangdong will recycle all its raw materials, adhere to the most stringent global environmental standards and employ state-of-the-art technologies,” he said.
Liu was responding to a proposal jointly submitted recently by 14 legislators to the Guangdong provincial people’s congress. Legislators submitted a proposal for the Nansha petrochemical project, which approved by the central government in December, to be delayed.
“The project should not have been listed as one of this year’s key projects of Guangzhou and Guangdong as the central government had not yet completed an environmental evaluation on the base,” they said.
Liu Yiling, director of the Guangdong environmental protection technological center, said the project violates the environmental protection guideline, which designates Nansha as an area not suitable for large oil refinery, iron and steel projects.
“The Nansha plant would worsen air pollution problems in Guangzhou, she said, stressing that it will have adverse impact on the air quality of cities including Hong Kong and Shenzhen.