Anhui moves against hidden hazards

China's Oil and Gas Pipeline Protection Law, passed in 2010, stipulates that the safe distance of an oil pipeline from a residential area should be 15 meters, prohibiting any blast, cutting into a mountain, construction of large-scale buildings and accessory structures, such as chimneys, wells, roads and bridges, within a range of 50 meters from the center line of oil pipelines, or pipeline facilities field area.

But local residents have complained that one pipeline of Anqing Petrochemical General Factory cuts the Huating New Village into two and one restaurant is only five meters from the pipeline, presenting great safety hazards.

Cheng Jieshu, who once served as chief of Anqing Environmental Protection Bureau, said the bureau receives daily complaints about oil and gas pipeline safety.

On August 1, Anhui Governor Li Jinbin paid a visit to the section passing through the Culture Square in Anqing, seeking ways to implement risk control measures for the oil and gas pipelines.

Li told the accompanying officials in Anqing that the oil and gas pipeline safety hazard remediation is of vital importance, urging around-the-clock safety monitoring and seeking proper ways to solve the problem.

Li also led a provincial delegation to Sinopec headquarters in Beijing later, discussing with representatives of the corporation how to relocate two pipelines passing through the city proper in Anqing --- one is 8.8 kilometers long and the other is 2.8 kilometers long.

The relocation project, which is likely to cost 1.5 billion yuan ($238 million) --- mostly to Sinopec, will start in November this year.

The project is costly but is worth doing in order to safeguard people's safety, Li said, citing the example of a crude oil leak from an old Sinopec pipeline in East China's port city of Qingdao in Shandong on November 22, 2013, which killed 62 people and injured 136 others, which cost the company at least 2.2 billion yuan in compensation.