Sinopec Totally Explained

Everything about Sinopec totally explained

Sinopec, or the China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation ( ) (), is one of the major petroleum companies in China. Sinopec's business includes oil and gas exploration, refining, and marketing; production and sales of petrochemicals, chemical fibers, chemical fertilizers, and other chemical products; storage and pipeline transportation of crude oil and natural gas; import, export and import/export agency business of crude oil, natural gas, refined oil products, petrochemicals, and other chemicals. In 2006, it's ranked 23rd by Fortune Global 500 in 2006, up from its rank of 31 in 2005. In 2005 it ranked first in the Top 500 Enterprises of China ranking.
   Since 2004, Sinopec has also been the title sponsors of China's largest sporting event, the Formula One Sinopec Chinese Grand Prix.
   In early 2007 Sinopec opened China's first drive-thru petrol station and fast-food restaurant, in the Changping district of Beijing.
   In February, 2007, Saudi Aramco and Exxon signed a deal with Sinopec to revamp the Fujian oil refinery and triple its capacity to by 2009. Aramco, Exxon and Sinopec also signed contracts for a fuel marketing venture that will manage 750 service stations and a network of terminals in Fujian province.

Sinopec in Gabon

Unipec, a subsidiary of Sinopec, signed a contract with French oil company Total Gabon in February 2002. Under the contract China, for the first time, bought Gabonese crude oil.
   In the African nation of Gabon, Sinopec's joint ventures in oil exploration have been accused of violating environmental conventions by the government of Gabon. Its activities in Gabon's national parks were suspended in September, 2006, by the Gabonese national parks council. Sinopec signed an evaluation deal with Gabon in 2004. During his African visit that year Chinese President Hu Jintao signed a series of bilateral trade accords with his Gabonese counterpart Omar Bongo, including a "memorandum of agreement aimed at showing the parties' desire to develop exploration, exploitation, refining and export activities of oil products". Three onshore fields were to be explored. One of the three blocks, LT2000, is some 200 kilometers (120 miles) southeast of Gabon's economic hub, Port Gentil, which lies south of the capital, Libreville, on the Atlantic coast.
   The other two - DR200 and GT2000 - are around 100 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of Port Gentil, according to the Gabonese oil ministry. Earlier, in 2002, Gabon designated a quarter of its territory as nature reserve a move designed to protect 67 000 km² of rainforest. Sinopec prospected for oil in the Loango national park in southern Gabon and employed methods that critics said respected neither the law nor the environment. Sinopec was accused of dynamiting and polluting the park by investigating teams from a US environmental organisation, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Professor Christophe Boesch, a primatologist performing field work in the park, said: "They're using dynamite, which is killing and scaring the wildlife, sending the gorillas deeper into the forest and outside the protection of the park where they risk becoming bushmeat. They're bulldozing roads through the park, polluting the waters with chemicals and slurry and hunting the wildlife to eat."
   Gabonese law states that "if oil or mineral riches are discovered in the protected areas they can be exploited for the economic and social benefit of the country...nevertheless the operator concerned is obliged to rehabilitate the site," and Sinopec, despite being opposed by the Ministry of Forestry and the National parks administration, is backed by the Ministry of Mines.

Harvard University divestment

In March, 2006, Harvard University withdrew its investments in Sinopec. It stated in a press release that it didn't usually divest from stock for reasons unrelated to business but felt a problem arose over Sinopec's involvement in the mining of oil in Sudan.
Harvard University argued that Sinopec Corporation is a publicly listed company in which a dominant (68 per cent) interest is held by China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group). Sinopec Group is wholly owned by the Chinese government, and Sinopec Corporation and Sinopec Group have substantially overlapping management.
Harvard said that its move was prompted because the Sudanese government had been found to be complicit in genocide in the Darfur region by the United Nations.

Environmental Record

Sinopec Corp. claims to operate “in strict compliance with national laws, rules and regulations, standards and policies, practicing a sustainable growth strategy and pursuing coordinated economic and ecological development to deliver our promises to the public”. With the principle of "Prevention Foremost, People First", it supports and enforces HSE management system and states to conduct clean production.
However, China's top environmental watchdog has warned Sinopec in 2007 to stop operations at one of its oilfields due to chronic river pollution. Zhongyuan Oilfields Petrochemical Company, a unit of Sinopec, had failed to meet waste water treatment requirements and had been ordered to pay a pollution fine and operations had to be halted, according to the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).
Guangdong Provincial Environment Bureau (GPEB had also issued a red sign warning to 19 companies, including Sinopec Guangzhou, in February 2008. By GPEB’s standard, the companies that have involved in excessive emissions or caused serious environmental pollution accidents will be given the red sign warning and will be placed under strict supervision.

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