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Laura Zhou

The chief of China's top oil refining company says low-quality coal, rather than oil, is to blame for the country's air pollution woes, mainland media reported on Thursday.
Sinopec Group chairman Fu Chengyu told Beijing Times on the sidelines of the annual parliamentary meetings in Beijing that coal accounted for about 66 per cent of the mainland's energy consumption. By contrast, oil was up to 18 per cent, he said.
"Coal is not good, but can we live without [coal]?" the newspaper quoted Fu as saying.
"I hope that one day everyone can use clean coal, but we can hardly do it now."
Fu also blamed local governments for the pollution problem. They were the authorities that decided which kind of oil was used and sold in the region, he said.
For all the latest news from China’s parliamentary sessions click here
Fu's comments came after former CCTV presenter Chai Jing released an online documentary, Under the Dome, about smog and other air pollution issues.
In her 103-minute video, which claimed that half a million people die prematurely each year because of air pollution, Chai accused Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corporation of failing to produce cleaner fuel because of the higher costs and the lack of national standards.
Her film quickly went viral online across the mainland before being blocked.
Chai, a 39-year-old mother, took up the smog issue after her baby girl was diagnosed with a tumour before birth, according to an interview published on the People's Daily website.
Fu told Beijing Times that Sinopec could produce cleaner oil and that there was a national standard for oil quality.
But he pointed the finger at the provincial governments, saying they decided which oil they wanted to use, resulting in several different standards for oil quality across the country.
"Some people want cheaper oil, so [they] choose to use low-quality oils," Fu said.
"It's not my call to decide where to sell [oil], it's the government that decides where I can sell it."
The Sinopec chairman also said that his company's decision to inject more than 100 billion yuan (HK$123 billion) of private capital into its marketing unit might help it to expand its business possibilities.
But the chairman added that reforming business operations - rather than simply pursuing greater private capital - would be the key to reform in monopoly sectors.
The employment of tens of thousands of workers in the industry also posed great challenges to any reform within state-owned enterprises, he said.


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China pollution

Top refinery chief blames coal - not oil - for China’s air pollution problems

Fu Chengyu, chairman of Sinopec Group, says the decisions of local governments are also to blame for China's pollution problems. Photos: Jonathan Wong, AP

Fu Chengyu, chairman of Sinopec Group, says the decisions of local governments are also to blame for China's pollution problems. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Fu Chengyu, chairman of Sinopec Group, says the decisions of local governments are also to blame for China's pollution problems. File photo: Jonathan Wong

News

China

The chief of China's top oil refining company says low-quality coal, rather than oil, is to blame for the country's air pollution woes, mainland media reported on Thursday.
