China’s top oil firm blacklisted for environmental breaches

The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the country’s biggest oil producer, has been put on a pollution blacklist for the second time in six months after breaching regulations at one of its refineries, the state environment watchdog said.

As Beijing tries to placate public complaints about the condition of the country’s air, water and soil, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) is under mounting pressure to strike hard against powerful industrial firms long given a relatively free hand to pollute in the quest for profit.

The ministry is expected to get new powers to punish law-breaking enterprises during the annual session of the country’s parliament in March.

It has already been naming and shaming enterprises and local governments for violating rules and falsifying data, and has refused to approve proposed projects until problems are rectified.

Late on Wednesday, the MEP published a list of 27 projects found to have violated a range of environmental regulations during inspections conducted in December. In addition to CNPC, the list included projects by state-owned Baotou Iron and Steel in Inner Mongolia.

The ministry said CNPC was fined 500,000 yuan (HK$635,000 ) and ordered to rectify “illegal behaviour” at its oilfield in northeast China’s Jilin province, where untreated wastewater was found to have contaminated local land and underground water tables.