Sinopec chief blamed for blast that killed 62
Print Edition
Chinese authorities are holding the chief of China’s largest oil refiner responsible for a pipeline explosion that killed 62 people and injured scores of others last November.
China Central Television reported yesterday that the State Council decided that an administrative demerit be recorded against Fu Chengyu, chief of state oil company Sinopec, which operated the pipeline.
The Cabinet also endorsed disciplinary action against 47 other people, including the mayor of the port city of Qingdao in the eastern Shandong Province, where the blast occurred, Xinhua news agency reported.
Fifteen people, who are suspected of crimes, have had their cases transferred to judicial authorities, Xinhua said.
The explosion at the Dongying-Huangdao II pipeline owned by Sinopec also injured 136 people and caused economic losses of 750 million yuan (US$123.9 million). Many of the dead were workers trying to repair a leak.
In a visit to the scene last November, Fu apologized to the people of Qingdao. Residents were angry as they were not warned even though the leak was discovered eight hours before the blast, state media said.
On Thursday, Chinese safety officials said the blast was caused by sparks from a jackhammer being used to repair a manhole cover following an oil leak. The sparks ignited fumes from oil that had leaked from a corroded pipe into the city’s sewerage system, they said.
The safety officials said both the government officials and Sinopec bore responsibility for failures in carrying out routine safety checks, weak emergency responses, poor work procedures and bad design placing buildings and underground utility lines too close to the pipeline.
Parts of China’s 102,000-kilometers of oil and gas pipelines are 40 years old. Corrosion, plus the fact that they are intertwined with municipal pipelines, puts them at high risk.
Since the November 22 explosion, inspections have uncovered nearly 20,000 potential hazards that are now being dealt with, said Wang Haoshui, an inspector with the administration in charge of safety at petrochemical plants.
The blast was China’s second deadliest industrial accident in 2013. A fire in a chicken factory in the northeastern Jilin Province in June killed 121 people.
The move to punish Sinopec comes as authorities scrutinize possible corruption at China’s oil companies. Former head of China National Petroleum Co Jiang Jiemin and other PetroChina officials were placed under investigation last year.
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