CAPITAL: Taipei
MONETARY UNIT: New Taiwan Dollar
REFINING CAPACITY: 770,000 b/cd
OIL PRODUCTION: None
OIL RESERVES: None
GAS RESERVES: None
Taiwan, less affected than many of its neighbors by Asia`s financial troubles, advanced plans for expansion of its petrochemical industry and privatization of Chinese Petroleum Corp. (CPC) in 1997.
Formosa Plastics Group started construction of a 900,000 metric ton/year naphtha-based ethylene plant in northern Taiwan. Separate Formosa plants with capacities of 700,000 tons/year and 450,000 tons/year were under construction.
The Petrochemical Industry Association of Taiwan reported in 1997 that the country`s output of ethylene reached a record 955,111 tons/year in 1996.
Concerning CPC`s privatization, the Commission of National Corporations planned to offer 15% of the company`s outstanding shares in fiscal 1998 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
At one point, the plan was to break the company into two or more parts prior to privatization in 2001.
During the course of 1997, however, China Development Corp. advised that CPC be privatized before June 1999 as a single entity.
CPC Chairman Lee Shu-Chiu resigned after taking responsibility for a Sept. 13 gas pipeline explosion that killed five persons in Kaoshiung. Workers replacing old pipe were thought to have neglected to ensure the line was empty.
