CNPC and affiliate employees probed on graft allegations

At least 45 people related to China National Petroleum Corp, the country's largest oil and gas producer and supplier, have been investigated over graft allegations from last year until this month, Beijing Times reported.

Among them, 21 are current or former managers of CNPC, and the other 24 are not company employees but have business with the company, the report said.

Anti-graft crackdown

The most recent case occurred on Saturday, when Yan Cunzhang, general manager of the CNPC's international department, was probed for grave discipline violation.

The same day, Zhao Miao, head of the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Sichuan Provincial Committee, was also announced to be under investigation by the province's anti-graft body. Zhao used to work at CNPC's Sichuan bureau from 1982 to 2005.

In August, the CNPC removed four senior executives from their posts because of allegations of corruption. The four are Wang Yongchun and Li Hualin, both former deputy general managers of CNPC; Ran Xinquan, former vice-president of PetroChina Company Ltd; and Wang Daofu, the former chief geologist for PetroChina.

Jiang Jiemin, former head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, is the highest-ranking of all the officials under investigation for activities related to CNPC. Jiang was arrested in September on corruption allegations.

Guo Yongxiang, former vice-governor of Sichuan province, was stripped of Party membership and expelled from public office for serious law and discipline violations on Wednesday. Guo used to work for CNPC from 1972 to 1998.

Within CNPC, 148 anti-graft officials were asked by the company to report their work in a recent campaign, according to a report released on Sunday on the website of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the country's top anti-graft agency.

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