MOSCOW (MRC) -- China refiners, petrochemical companies to propose CO2 benchmarking plan
Aug 23 China's oil refining, petrochemical and chemical companies will propose a plan to benchmark their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as the first step toward setting up an emissions market for the sector, the group's industry association said, reported Reuters.
The China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation (CPCIF), China's oil industry lobbying group, plans to make a proposal by September on how to set benchmarks for the CO2 produced while manufacturing products ranging from diesel fuel to benzene, it said in its China Chemical Industry News newsletter.
The benchmarks will be used to set CO2 emissions caps for nearly 2,400 companies in the sector under the national carbon market that will start next year, the CPCIF said.
China, the world's second-largest oil consumer, will need to benchmarks to help create reduction targets for its large petrochemical and chemical factories that are responsible for up to 70 percent of the sector's CO2 emissions, the CPCIF said.
The number of the petrochemical and chemical companies participating in China's domestic carbon market will account for one-third of the total number of companies participating nationally, said Li Yongliang, a CPCIF official, as cited by China Chemical Industry News.
China plans to bring in up to about 8000 companies in eight industries into its national carbon trading programme, including from the power, steel, cement and transportation sectors.
We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, Russian petrochemical company Sibur is in talks with shareholder Sinopec about investing in a planned gas chemical plant in Russia's Far East, said Reuters, citing Sibur boss Dmitry Konov. Sibur plans to buy gas from fields which Russia's Gazprom will develop in Eastern Siberia. He said a subsidiary of the Chinese firm, Sinopec Engineering Group, may also take part in constructing the plant. In December 2015, Sinopec paid USD1.338 billion for a 10% stake in Sibur and said it planned to acquire an additional 10% within three years.
MRC