China orders tighter supervision of offshore oil

SHANGHAI — China's leaders have ordered oil companies to beef up safety precautions for offshore oil drilling to prevent calamities similar to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, warning of "increasing risks" from aging equipment and weak rescue capabilities. Safety officials and others working in offshore drilling must "profoundly analyze and earnestly learn lessons from the US Gulf of Mexico rig accident" and fully grasp the grimness of the threat, said a statement posted on the website of the State Council's Safety Commission. At a recent meeting, officials warned that China's main offshore oil company, China National Offshore Oil Corp., or CNOOC, faces "seriously aging production facilities, weak emergency rescue ability and extreme weather conditions," the statement said. Improving the security and safety of offshore drilling should be a high priority, it said. The State Council, National Energy Bureau and State Oceanic Administration, meanwhile, are drafting regulations to safeguard offshore oil and gas pipelines, the state-run newspaper China Daily reported Wednesday. A draft law will be submitted for a vote when the rubberstamp National People's Congress wraps up a session of its Standing Committee on Friday, it said. After the April 20 offshore explosion in the Gulf of Mexico blew out a well 5,000 feet (1,525 meters) underwater, killing 11 workers, Chinese lawmakers urged amendments to the current law, which now only includes regulations for onshore pipelines, to help prevent a similar catastrophe, the report said. The Gulf spill has spewed anywhere from 20 million gallons (75 million liters) to 127 million gallons (480 million liters) of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, but has received relatively little attention in China, where most drilling is done onshore. But it did raise concerns given China's own dire track record for industrial accidents. China's first offshore oil and gas wells and pipelines were built in the early 1980s and some have been in operation for more than 20 years, the China Daily report cited Chen Weidong, chief researcher at CNOOC's energy research institute, as saying. CNOOC has said it is upgrading the blowout preventer system of a 3,000-meter (9,840-foot) deepwater oil drilling rig being built in Shanghai, which would automatically shut down in an accident. The company is also upgrading deepwater diving equipment to enable workers to eventually work at depths of up to 2,000 meters (6,560 feet) instead of the current 800 meters (2,625 feet) China's own state-run oil companies have so far had to deal only with onshore oil spills. The most recent was a pipeline leak in early January that spilled an estimated 100 tons of diesel fuel. —AP