Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) yesterday tapped a former chairman of Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co (國光石化科技), Chen Bao-lang (陳寶郎), to be its new chairman as it struggled to resolve a string of safety incidents at its industrial complex.
Chen, who was also ex-president of CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油公司), confirmed his appointment during an interview with the Broadcasting Corp of China yesterday. Formosa Petrochemical, the nation’s only listed oil refiner, is expected to convene an extraordinary board meeting next week to formalize the appointment.
Formosa Petrochemical chairman Wilfred Wang (王文潮) and president Su Chi-yi (蘇啟邑) announced in late July that they were stepping down after the firm experienced its fourth fire in three months at its petrochemical complex in Mailiao (麥寮), Yunlin County.
Formosa Petrochemical was responsible for four of the seven major safety mishaps that have struck the Formosa Plastics Group’s (台塑集團) operations over the past 12 months.
Chen told reporters yesterday that he hoped to contribute to society through his new role.
The Mailiao complex is a critical component of the nation’s petrochemical industry, and a slew of industrial safety mishaps at the complex has not only affected Formosa Petrochemical, but also the nation’s economic and industrial development, Chen said.
He said he was disappointed with the government’s decision in April to scrap support for Kuokuang’s plans to build a naphtha cracker in Changhua County.
The project would have meant a great deal to the development of the nation’s petrochemical industry, he said.
The US$20 billion project was killed amid public concerns about possible environmental hazards and after it failed to pass a number of environmental impact assessments.
The scrapping of the project prompted Chen to contemplate the future of the industry and led him to his new role at Formosa, he said.
Chen said that the safety issues at Formosa Petrochemical would need at least two to three years to resolve, given the large scale of equipment and pipelines that have to be changed.
Formosa Plastics Group has pledged to spend a total of NT$12 billion (US$416 million) until June 2014 to renew, repaint, service and restructure 1,063 pipelines that span about 1,266km at the Mailiao complex.
The complex has more than 3,000km of pipelines.
Chen, who resigned from his post at Kuokuang in May, is expected to take the helm at Formosa Petrochemical after the Mid-Autumn Festival.
In related news, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) yesterday slammed Formosa Petrochemical after it experience yet another fire incident on Tuesday.
The fire was caused by an oil leakage during machinery testing at the complex.
Shih said Formosa Petrochemical should not have allowed such an incident to recur.
The ministry has a task force currently monitoring the group’s industrial safety issues, and the Mailiao operations have been suspended in batches for safety checks. However, overall safety improvement will still take time, he said.
Shih said the ministry would set up a promotional office in January to encourage companies and entrepreneurs to invest and focus on the research and development of higher-value petrochemical products.
The government is urging local petrochemical companies to invest at least 2 percent of their annual revenue in R&D by 2020, up from the current 0.32 percent.
That would translate to NT$40 billion of the industry’s projected revenue of NT$2 trillion in 2020. This can be used to support the development of high-end products, such as thin films for solar cells and special chemicals, the ministry said.
This story has been updated since it was first published.
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