Another Disaster Follows Last Winter's Snowstorm   

At 2:28 p.m. on May 12th, while most people were busy working, a powerful 8.0 magnitude earthquake took place in Wenchuan county, 90 kilometers away from Sichuan province's capital, Chengdu - a region surrounded by mountains. Although I was in Beijing, more than 2 000 kilometers away from the epicenter, I felt the shake. Tens of thousands of people were killed, including many students and kids trapped in collapsing schools, making me ache with sadness. The earthquake moved along a 300 kilometer fault. It was difficult to rescue victims because of frequent aftershocks and the rain that followed for three days. On May 18th, a 6.1 magnitude aftershock took place, and all buildings in Chengdu, which has a population of several million, were shaking.
    According to the report of CPCIA (China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association), 203 chemical firms in the quaking region stopped operation, and nearly five thousand workers were killed or buried. Mountains collapsed; in one case two peaks collapsed together into one. Roads were destroyed and rivers were blocked. Workers buried in the mills could not be saved in time because of blocked transport.   
   The Shifang, Deyang and Mianyang regions of Sichuan province have many phosphorus chemical firms. China's phosphorus industry will be heavily affected. When people calm down from the quake, the government will consider how to manage the resources among the mountains, and maybe there will be more restrictive regulations on digging and exports.
   Sichuan province has been the focus of attention of CNPC, the majority shareholder of PetroChina Company Limited. The group controls many natural gas fields in the province. Six million cubic meters per day of natural gas production capacity of PetroChina was affected by the earthquake. Jiang Jiemin, president of PetroChina, reported on May 15th that 1/3 of the affected capacity has been restored. He also expressed regret that six workers of PetroChina disappeared and 56 others were wounded. Jiang also commented that 78 filling stations operated by PetroChina stopped operation due to bad damage, with another 650 stations suffering light damage. An oil pipeline has problems. PetroChina shall try its best to guarantee oil supply in the quake region. Sinopec Group announced it will support PetroChina if necessary.
    Jiang Jiemin also commented on new reservations about a plan to build a new 10 million t/a refinery and 800 000 t/a ethylene plant in Pengzhou of Sichuan, another area damaged by the quake. Jiang said the project had been studied for 12 years, and it had been thought that the plant should have no impact on the local environment. However, the company will study this plan further in light of the quake and then decide if the project will be dropped or go ahead.

Zhong Weike
May 19th, 2008