China Petroleum Chemical Corp. (386),
Asia’s largest refiner, said operations at its “super-large”
production complex in Qingdao will be disrupted after a crude
pipeline leak and blast that killed at least 52 people.
The 10 million metric-ton-a-year facility will have “some
disruptions,” Lv Dapeng, a Beijing-based spokesman for the
company known as Sinopec, said in a phone interview yesterday,
without giving further details. The explosion occurred after oil
leaked from the pipeline into Qingdao’s municipal rainwater
network. Xinhua News Agency said 136 people are injured and 11
are missing.
The incident is the latest in a string of fatal industrial
accidents as China seeks to improve workplace safety. In June, a
fire at a poultry plant in the northeastern province of Jilin
killed 120 people in the nation’s deadliest blaze in 13 years.
Chinese President Xi Jinping visited relatives of people killed
and injured in the Qingdao blast, China National Radio reported.
Sinopec will cooperate with the government on a probe into the
accident, the company said today in a statement to the Shanghai
Stock Exchange.
“At this stage, the company’s main task is to avoid
further accidents by checking if there’s more gas combustible
within the rescue zone,” Lv said by phone yesterday, adding
that the spillage of oil is under control. The company is still
investigating the cause of the leak, he said.
Sinopec’s refining and petrochemical site at Qingdao in
Shandong province produces more than 7 million tons of gasoline,
kerosene and diesel a year, according to the company’s website.
Refined products are sold in the north, northeast and
southeastern coastal regions of China, as well as being
exported, according to the website.
Shares Decline
Shares of Sinopec fell as much as 3.4 percent to HK$6.77 in
Hong Kong trading and were at HK$6.86 as of 9:36 a.m. local
time. Its Shanghai traded stock slumped 3.4 percent to 4.88 yuan
as at 9:38 a.m. local time.
The company will maintain normal fuel supplies to customers
in the region from its other plants, Lv said. Sinopec operates a
refining and chemical facility in Shandong province at Zibo,
more than 130 miles west of Qingdao. The refinery can process
10.5 million tons a year, according to the company’s website.
The 249-kilometer Donghuang II pipeline, which Sinopec shut
following the leak, has a capacity of 10 million tons a year,
according to the company. That’s about 200,000 barrels a day. It
primarily ships crude from the Shengli oilfield to Huangdao
port, Lv said.
While crude imports to the Qingdao refinery will be
disrupted, the plant will not be shut completely because it
still has some oil and fuel inventories, according to Lv. The
complex also produces liquefied petroleum gas, polypropylene and
styrene, with a total output of more than 2 million tons a year,
according to the website.
Port Operations
Six oil vessels, including two supertankers with capacity
of 300,000 tons, were ordered for safety reasons to depart from
berthing facilities at Qingdao port, according to a press
release by the municipal government yesterday. The port had the
capacity to handle about 30 million tons of oil a year as of
2009, the government’s website showed. It was the fifth-busiest
container port in the country, according to October data from
the Ministry of Transport.
Port operations are running smoothly, according to a
spokesman for Qingdao Port Group Co., who asked not to be
identified when contacted by phone yesterday. The leak spread
across 3,000 square meters in Jiaozhou Bay and the Yellow Sea,
the Qingdao Municipal People’s Government Information Office
said on its microblog.
China this month pledged to allow more private investment
in state-controlled industries as part of the biggest package of
reforms since the 1990s.
‘Learn Lessons’
The country will improve work safety and “learn lessons”
from the blast, China Central Television reported Xi as saying.
The accident investigation should be fast-tracked and
responsibility established, Xi said.
China uses its big three oil companies, including Sinopec,
to control domestic fuel prices and secure energy supplies from
overseas to meet the burgeoning needs of an economy that
expanded 7.7 percent last year.
Sinopec reported a profit increase in the third quarter as
a new policy helped it and PetroChina Co. to raise fuel prices,
foreshadowing the government’s plan to reduce state intervention
in the economy.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Sarah Chen in Beijing at
schen514@bloomberg.net;
Ramsey Al-Rikabi in Singapore at
ralrikabi@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Alexander Kwiatkowski at
akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net
Sinopec Explosion
AFP/Getty Images
Workers clean up oil on a river of the Jiaozhou Bay after an oil pipeline exploded at the China Petroleum Chemical Corp. plant in the city of Qingdao, east China’s Shandong province, on November 23, 2013.
Workers clean up oil on a river of the Jiaozhou Bay after an oil pipeline exploded at the China Petroleum Chemical Corp. plant in the city of Qingdao, east China’s Shandong province, on November 23, 2013. Source: AFP/Getty Images
Sinopec Explosion
ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images
Workers collect oil after a pipeline exploded at a China Petroleum Chemical Corp. plant on November 23, 2013 in Qingdao, China.
Workers collect oil after a pipeline exploded at a China Petroleum Chemical Corp. plant on November 23, 2013 in Qingdao, China. Source: ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images
Sinopec Qingdao Refinery Disrupted as Blast Death Toll Rises
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét