ZHUHAI - China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the country's largest offshore energy explorer, said Friday the company had resumed gas supply from the South China Sea after repairing a leaking pipeline.

The supply resumed on Monday, two months after the leak was found in its natural gas pipeline in Zhuhai, a city in South China's Guangdong province, said Gao Guangsheng, deputy general manager of the CNOOC Shenzhen Branch.

The two leak points on the pipeline have been covered up as a temporary measure, and a permanent repair, which will replace the damaged section of the pipeline, will be done after the Spring Festival, said Gao.

Earlier investigations showed the leak, detected on December 19 by a fishermen in the sea about 12 km from CNOOC's natural gas terminal in Zhuhai, was caused by illegal sand dredging. Further investigation is still under way, said Gao.

The pipeline's daily gas supply volume is 2 million cubic meters currently, only 46 percent of the normal level but sufficient for the demand of industrial use and local residents' consumption during the Spring Festival period, according to Gao.?