King Tours Taoyuan CPC Refinery Plant

Eswatini Daily News
By: King’s Correspondents

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – With the country keen to construct a Strategic Oil Reserve, His Majesty King Mswati III visited Taoyuan CPC Refinery Plant yesterday to see its structure and layout.

The country sees the construction of a strategic oil reserve at Phuzamoya, Siphofaneni as a move to stabilize the volatile oil industry that often prompts a huge increase in commodity prices thereby making lives difficult for the poor. The King was welcomed by its Chairman Lee Shun-chin who briefed His Majesty and his delegation about their operations, which mainly supply the northern part of the country (Taiwan) with all its petroleum needs.

“It is my privilege to host this visit in honour of Your Majesty and your entourage. I understand most of you have made multiple trips to my country previously. CPC is honoured to receive Your Majesty in 2018. Four years later, after your first visit to CPC, we are privileged to welcome your Royal Majesty again today. As the CPC chairman, I pledge the full cooperation of my office to make your trip a most memorable one,” he said.

Chairman Lee said the Kingdom of Eswatini and the Republic of China (Taiwan) have been staunch allies since 1968, holding frequent mutual visits between senior officials. “We understand Eswatini is planning to build the strategic oil reserve facility and we hope this visit will give you a better understanding of the operation of gasoline and diesel tanks and truck-loading systems.

“At the same time, we want to show you our three major strategies for the future ‘optimizing refining operations’, ‘reducing carbon emissions’, and ‘developing clean energy’. “These strategies outline a road map for CPC to Net Zero and sustainable transformation, thereby further advancing the bilateral cooperation in these new fields between Eswatini and the Republic of China (Taiwan),” Lee said. He further thanked His Majesty the King for his vocal support of Taiwan at the recent 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly debate.

The CPC Refinery Plant is a government enterprise that now operates two refineries at Taoyuan and Dalin with a combined daily refining capacity of 600 000 barrels of crude. The country’s imports of crude oil reached 136.89 million barrels in 2021: 52.63 percent from the Middle East, 38.96 percent from the USA, and 7.98 percent from Africa. To import crude oil, CPC has installed offshore mooring pontoons to unload large oil tankers at Shalun in Taoyuan and Dalinpu in Kaohsiung. The company has also built dedicated tanker loading/unloading berths in the ports of Kaohsiung, Taichung, and ShenAo.

In this tour of the refinery plant His Majesty the King was accompanied by Inkhosikati Make LaMashwama, Prince Lonkhokhela, Emazinyane, cabinet ministers Thulisile Dladla, Manqoba Khumalo, Neal Rijkenberg, Chief Officer Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze, Indvuna Mashampu Mafelenkhosini Khumalo and both Ambassadors Promise Msibi for Eswatini and Jeremy Liang for Taiwan.

In the Kingdom the Eswatini National Petroleum Corporation is responsible for the construction of the Strategic Oil Reserve and the Republic of China (Taiwan) is a willing partner.