John Westbrook
OGJ Correspondent
TAIPEI, July 28 -- Chinese Petroleum Corp. (CPC) has officially notified the Chiayi County government that CPC is abandoning a plan to build Taiwan's eighth naphtha cracker at Putai. The plan to build the eighth naphtha cracker has been under development since 1995. In February 1999, CPC and the Chiayi County government signed a letter of intent to build the cracker at the site of an industrial salt plant at Putai.
The project has come under increasing criticism from conservationist groups in both Taiwan and abroad as well as from Chiayi County's aquaculture industry.
In addition, a CPC official said, an evaluation has determined that building a required deepwater port at the site would not be economically viable, making it impossible to move ahead with the project.
Industry sources say that it is increasingly unlikely that CPC will build Taiwan's eighth naphtha cracker as the company has already ruled out other potential sites including one in Pingtung County.