Pollution protests force Chinese project concessions

摘要

A clash between sustaining economic growth and cleaning up the environment is complicating Chinese downstream pro- jects, with officials increasingly making concessions amid growing public discon- tent about associated pollution. Chinese state-controlled oil firm Pet- roChina is pushing ahead with plans to build a 200,000 b/d refinery at Kunming in southwest China’s Yunnan province, aiming to start work this year (WPA, 29 June, p5). But the 20bn yuan ($3.2bn) project has drawn PetroChina unwanted attention because of a paraxylene (PX) plant that Shanghai-listed Yuntianhua is building nearby, which will use naphtha feedstock from the refinery.