Two of China’s largest oil producers are saying they will refuse to respect a new regulation requiring certain companies to purchase pollution insurance to cover environmental compensation claims, according to a state media report. From AFP via Yahoo! Asia News:
Sinopec and CNPC, parent of Hong Kong-listed PetroChina, said that they can handle environmental compensation issues themselves, the report said, citing a note issued by the environment watchdog recently.
They also argued that the scale of compensation paid out in the oil industry was too high for China’s insurance companies to bear, it added. [Full Text]
As noted in the AFP article, an explosion at a CNPC plant in Jilin was the cause of 2005’s Songhua River pollution scandal, for which many victims have yet to be compensated.
