Ding Ning, a resident of the Chinese city of Harbin, filed the suit on Thursday against Jilin Petrochemical Company, a subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corporation, in the court of Nangang District of Harbin, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Jilin Petrochemical owns a plant where an explosion took place on November 13, spilling the benzene into the Songhua River.