Shocking details have emerged concerning SINOPEC which was sub-contracted by Total for the Tilenga oil project.
According to our investigations, it was confirmed that SINOPEC has had several accidents while managing key oil pipelines resulting into the deaths of many workers in China.
One such accident occurred in 2013, when at least 64 people died when a pipeline in Qingdao exploded.
This resulted into the government of China penalizing more than 60 people while SINOPEC received a demerit administrative sanction from the Chinese government.
The 176-km leaking pipeline which links oil depots in Huangdao to Weifang City caught fire and exploded.
“The major cause of the accident was corrosion that wore down the pipeline, leading to the break,” said a safety watchdog in China.
“Repair work on a sewage cover plate on the day of the accident involved the use of a hydraulic hammer that wasn’t explosion-proof, producing the sparks that triggered the blasts,” the watchdog added.
Just in June last year, Chinese regulators summoned executives from Sinopec Group to a meeting after the oil giant suffered its second deadly accident that month, saying the episodes had “seriously impacted people’s sense of security.”
Reports indicate that government officials told Sinopec that the accidents “had a bad influence” on the public and fell short of expectations for “important state-owned enterprises”.
The Tilenga project main Engineering Procurement Supply Construction and Commissioning (EPSCC) contract was awarded to the consortium of McDermott/Sinopec.
Uganda launched its first oil drilling programme in January as the country races to meet its target of first oil output in 2025.
The Kingfisher field is part of a $10b scheme to develop the country’s oil reserves under Lake Albert and build a vast pipeline to ship the crude to international markets via the Indian Ocean through in Tanzania.
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