CPC Corporation

CPC Corporation, Taiwan (Chinese: 台灣中油, literally Taiwan Chinese Petroleum) is a state-owned petroleum, natural gas, and gasoline company in Taiwan and is the core of the Taiwanese petrochemicals industry.

History

CPC was founded on 1 June 1946 in Shanghai by the government of the Republic of China. However, the company was founded by merging all relevant facilities and companies (Japanese 6th Naval Fuel Depot, Teikoku Oil, Nippon Oil, etc.) in Taiwan. With the Kuomintang retreat to Taiwan after the Chinese Civil War, CPC was transferred from the Council of Resources to the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Its main businesses include surveying, extracting, refining, transporting, and selling petroleum. It also produces various chemicals and has retail outlets all over Taiwan. CPC's fixing of petrol prices helped Taiwan through the Energy Crisis. Taiwan's petroleum industry was a CPC monopoly prior to June 1996, when the establishment of privately owned and operated petroleum refinery enterprises were allowed. However, deregulation allowed private firms to invest, leading to Formosa Plastics Group's launch of CPC competitor Formosa Petrochemical Corporation(台塑石化). Prior to 9 February 2007, the company was known by its former full name Chinese Petroleum Corporation (中國石油), until the board approved the name change on that date with immediate effect. However, Kuomintang has argued that the name change is not valid because no legislation was passed in the legislature to support it. KMT believes that the approval of the Legislative Yuan is required before a state-owned company can change its name.