Chinese Petroleum Corporation, Taiwan

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A CPCC petrol station outside Danshui Station in Taipei County

CPC Corporation, Taiwan (台灣中油), which has a full name of Chinese Petroleum Corporation, Taiwan, is a state-owned petroleum, natural gas, and gasoline company in Taiwan (Republic of China). It is the core of Taiwan's petrochemicals industry. It was formerly known as Chinese Petroleum Corporation (CPC; 中國石油), but the board approved the name change on February 9, 2007 with immediate effect. ^[1]

The opposition Kuomintang party has argued that the name change is not valid because no legislation was passed in the legislature to support it. The KMT believes that the legislative's approval is required before a state-owned company can change its name.^[2]

[edit] Brief History

CPC was founded on June 1st, 1946 in Shanghai by the government of Republic of China. As the government relocate from China to Taiwan, it was transferred from the Council of Resources to Ministry of Economic Affairs. Its main businesses include surveying, extracting, refining, transportation, and sales of petroleum. It also produces various chemicals and has sales points all over Taiwan. It helped Taiwan going through the Energy Crisis by stabling the prices. Before 1990's petroleum was a monopolized market dominated by CPC. However, as the government deregulated and allowed private firms to invest in the petroleum industry, Formosa Plastic Group started Formosa Petrochemical Company to enter and compete with CPC in the market.