Several senior executives of Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum (Group) Co are under investigation for accepting bribes, the Oriental Outlook Weekly under the Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.

According to the report, some senior executives of the country's fourth biggest oil producer by output have been questioned by the People's Procuratorate of Xi'an for their alleged involvement in a series of corruption cases. And some of them have already been fired by the State-owned company.

It is not the first time that managers of the country's top regional oil producer, based in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, have been accused of engaging in bribery cases.

Li Xing, former deputy manager of Yanchang Oilfield Corp, a subsidiary of the group, was tried by the Xi'an Intermediate People's Court Wednesday for taking bribes amounting to 5.3 million yuan ($850,120) for contract fixing. The verdict has not yet been announced.

The local authorities received tips from some contractors who decided to blow the whistle after they paid bribes to managers who failed to follow through on the deals they tried to fix, the Oriental Outlook Weekly said.

Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum is one of the country's four qualified firms for oil and gas exploration. The company's official website said its revenue had skyrocketed to 123.6 billion yuan, from 2005's 30.3 billion yuan, with an annual average growth rate of 26 percent.

But in recent years a few of the company's executives have been sentenced to prison or even the death penalty for taking bribes.

Global Times