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Pipeline repaired as China works to contain spill

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-07-22 14:35
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BEIJING - China National Petroleum Corp said Thursday a vital pipeline has resumed operations after an explosion caused the country's largest reported oil spill.

Cleanup efforts continued over 165 square mile (430 square kilometer) stretch of water blanketed in thick, dark oil Thursday, after an official warned the spill posed a severe threat to sea life and water quality.

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China Central Television earlier reported an estimate of 1,500 tons of oil has spilled.

CNPC, which owns the pipeline at the port of Dalian, said more than 400 tons of oil had been cleaned up by 9 am Wednesday, according to a report posted on its website Thursday.

The company, Asia's biggest oil-and-gas producer by volume, also said the pipeline was repaired and resumed operations Monday, now pumping 45,000 tons of crude oil a day. The blast had reduced oil shipments from part of China's strategic oil reserves to the rest of the country.

Fishing in the waters around Dalian has been banned through the end of August, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Officials, oil company workers and volunteers were turning out by the hundreds to clean blackened beaches.

About 40 oil-skimming boats and 800 fishing boats were also deployed to clean up the spill, and Xinhua said more than 9 miles (15 kilometers) of oil barriers had been set up to keep the slick from spreading.