CNPC unit defends purchase of Land Rover SUVs

THE Tarim Oilfields Co Ltd in a northwest China desert said yesterday that their Land Rover SUVs were used for oil and gas exploration in the desert, not for luxury lifestyle as accused by some people on the Internet, the Beijing Times reported.

The company which operates oil fields in the Tarim basin in the outlying Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region denied that those expensive SUVs were for its senior executives, saying any technical or management workers of the company can use them.

Five photos were posted on the Voice of China news website (voc.com.cn), showing a boy standing before a row of 14 Land Rover SUVs owned by the transportation department of the Tarim Oilfields Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the newspaper said.

The person who posted these photos claimed that most of these SUVs were assigned to top officials of the oil company.

The company responded immediately, saying these Land Rover SUVs were used for oil and gas exploration in the desert. It imported these expensive vehicles because domestic SUVs are unfit for driving in harsh terrains and tend to have frequent breakdowns and a shorter life.

The paper said a Land Rover Discovery costs about 800,000 yuan (US$125,717) to 900,000 yuan and guzzles 18.5 liters of gas per 100 kilometers. But the company said its maintenance cost was much lower compared with other SUVs.

Some netizens agree that using a high-quality SUV in the desert is justified but they are afraid that these expensive vehicles will be abused by officials.

It has not been the first time that some netizens accused the state-owned CNPC, the country's biggest oil and gas producer, for squandering millions of yuan on imported luxury cars.

Last month, another CNPC subsidiary in Xinjiang was thrust into the limelight for importing seven luxury cars from Germany and Japan, including Volkswagen Touareg L3.2 V6 and Audi L2.4 even though the government has prohibited the use of luxury sedans by sta! te-owned enterprises, the report said.