By Zhan Lisheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-02-26 10:49

The massive petrochemical base planned for construction in Guangzhou's Nansha district will be less polluting than people believe and is still under the State's environmental evaluation, an   official in Guangzhou said Monday.

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"The project is under serious and meticulous evaluation by environmental authorities," Liu Jianwei, deputy director of the Nansha district government, said. He did not disclose when the project was scheduled to commence building.

The base in the provincial capital of Guangdong will recycle all its raw materials, adhere to the most stringent global environmental standards and employ state-of-the-art technologies, Liu said.

Liu was responding to a proposal jointly submitted recently by 14 deputies to the Guangdong provincial people's congress.

They said the project should not have been listed as one of this year's key projects of Guangzhou and Guangdong as the central government had not yet completed an environmental evaluation on the base.

The 56-billion-yuan ($7.8 billion) base will comprise the Sinopec-Kuwait oil refinery and chemical project, and a base for petrochemical processing.

The Sinopec-Kuwait oil refinery and chemical project, with a planned investment of $5 billion, will be the largest joint venture in China. It will have an annual crude oil processing capacity of 12 million tons and an ethylene production capacity of 110,000 tons.

Liu Yiling, director of the Guangdong environmental protection technological center, said the project violates the environmental protection guideline, which designates Nansha as an area not suitable for large oil refinery, iron and steel projects.