Oil giants punished for pollution-cut target failures

Sinopec and PetroChina were among 46 major state-owned enterprises "severely punished" last year for failing to achieve pollution reduction targets or for polluting the environment, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said yesterday.

Sinopec, Asia's largest refiner, PetroChina, the nation's largest oil and gas producer, and China Huadian Corp, one of China's five major power utilities, were the three largest companies in the list, Zhai Qing, deputy environmental protection minister, told a press conference.

The enterprises' branches in Henan and Guizhou provinces and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region were fined and ordered to improve their facilities.

Another 43 enterprises had been punished and given improvement deadlines, he said.

"The punishments were very severe under the orders of the State Council and all the processes have been publicized to the public," Zhai said. However, he did not specify the amount of fines involved.

Zhai said most of the pollution involved had been stopped and the ministry was using drones and satellites to keep an eye on companies and plants, he said.He said the ministry is controlling the number of projects approved to reduce air pollution. More than 30, with total investment of 118.4 billion yuan, were rejected last year.

Officials acknowledge the ministry's punitive powers are limited. Fines are lower than compliance costs and many firms are willing to pay up and continue breaking the law.

China is facing pressure in meeting the emissions cut targets set in its pollution control plan by 2015, Zhai said.

The government has vowed to cut chemical oxygen demand, a measure of organic pollutants in water, and sulfur dioxide emissions by 8 percent and ammonia nitrogen and nitrogen oxide emissions by 10 percent compared with 2010.

China currently records 24 million tons of COD per year, while the total annual volume of ammonia nitrogen emissions is 2.45 million tons.

Experts estimate that China's water environment will undergo fundamental improvement only after these figures are cut by 30 to 50 percent, Zhai said.

"Emissions of COD, sulfur dioxide and ammonia nitrogen have dropped by over 7 percent in the past three years, basically as scheduled, but nitrogen oxide emissions only dropped by about 2 percent, which has created great pressure for emissions-cutting tasks in 2014 and 2015," he said.

Zhai said he had been pleased to see that residents in Shanghai and Beijing were aware of the importance of environmental protection judging by the reduction in Spring Festival fireworks.

Shanghai is to install air pollution monitors at more construction sites and factories, the city's environmental authorities said yesterday. Detectors were installed at more than 40 sites on a trial basis last year.