Greater Kaohsiung has served as a hub for the petrochemical industry since the Japanese colonial era.
The city’s local industry employs 35,000 workers and is home to multiple petrochemical parks such as the state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan’s (CPC) Kaohsiung Refinery Plant, its Dalin (大林) Township Refinery Plant, the Dafa Industrial Area, the Linyuan (林園) Petrochemical Area, the Renwu (仁武) Petrochemical Industial Area and the Dashe (大社) Petrochemical Industrial Area.
The beginnings of the municipality’s petrochemical industry can be traced to 1936, when the former Japanese Imperial Navy established a fuel plant in what is now Nanzih District’s (楠梓) Houjin Township (後勁) to refine crude oil and fuel its fleet.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Time
After World War II ended in 1946, the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government took over the plant, expanded on the Japanese-built infrastructure and refashioned it into CPC’s Kaohsiung fuel refinery.
In 1971, the plant expanded to include CPC’s first and second naphtha crackers, prompting other petrochemical giants to also set up facilities near Kaohsiung in Renwu and Dashe districts. Companies that have invested in these areas include the Formosa Plastics Group, Nanya Technology, USI Corp, Asia Polymer Corp, Taita Chemical Co and China Petrochemical Development Corp.
Currently, CPC’s Kaohsiung fuel refinery has 1,700 employees and churns out 200,000 barrels of oil a day.
However, its fifth naphtha cracker is facing an impending relocation and has been trying to boost its production quota to compensate for the period when it will not be operating during the move. The Renda (仁大) Industrial Area and more than 10 companies are to be impacted by the relocation, which could cost 2,500 workers their jobs.
The concentration of the petro-chemical industry in Greater Kaohsiung has prompted the saying: “If anything explodes at CPC’s plant, it would level Kaohsiung.”
However, prior to the pipeline explosions in the city’s Cianjhen (前鎮) and Lingya (苓雅) districts late on Thursday night and early on Friday morning, the expression had been said only in jest.
After seeing how a propene leak in a pipeline running underneath the middle of those districts wreaked massive damage, civic groups and academics are beginning to worry about Greater Kaohsiung’s status as a petrochemical hub.
As of 4pm yesterday, 28 people, including four firefighters, have been confirmed dead in the blasts, with two firemen still missing and 302 people reported as injured, according to figures compiled by the Central Disaster Emergency Operation Center.
Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan executive director Lee Ken-cheng (李根政) said that the network of pipes carrying petrochemical substances under the city is too dense, adding that some pipelines were even connected to one other.
After four decades in use, the pipes are all outdated, making them akin to dud bombs, Lee said.
Chang Jui-ren (張瑞仁), director of the Professional Geotechnical Engineers Association’s Kaohsiung-Pingtung Office, said the gas companies should have been more worried than the government about leaks depressurizing the flow of gas, adding that no one had a clue about which pipe was malfunctioning.
“How can the public feel safe with these people in charge of the pipelines running underneath them?” Chang asked.
Yang Ping-tsang (楊秉蒼), a professor at Cheng Shiu University’s department of civil engineering, said the problem lay in the nation’s lack of laws governing the oversight of pipelines’ security, so local governments build modern urban cities with no visible pipelines by putting them underground, which means no one knows what state they are in.
Former Kaohsiung Professional Civil Engineers Association president Ou Liang-kui (歐良規) said that despite recent fears, the continued security and transformation Greater Kaohsiung must not exclude the petrochemical industry.
The Greater Kaohsiung City Government’s plan for the “New Asia Bay Area” happens to pass over Chenggong Road, under which run oil and petrochemical pipelines, Ou said.
If anything were to happen to that line, the “cream of the cream” of Greater Kaohsiung may be subject to explosion, Ou said.
Though the petrochemical industry provides for tens of thousands of families, a recent string of safety incidents including the blasts led the director of the city government’s Economic Development Bureau, Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生), to say that while the city welcomes investors, it also hopes they will uphold their social responsibilities.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
RSS