Emergency measures are being taken in Chongqing Municipality to close the gas well that was found to have sprung a leak, a senior official with the well's owner China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) said on Sunday.

 

The leak was discovered at the well belonging to the CNPC's Sichuan Provincial Petroleum Administration on Saturday morning. No casualties have been reported.

 

Liao Yongyuan, assistant to the general manager of the CNPC group, said that there are plans to cap the Luojia No.2 gas well at Gaoqiao Town in Kaixian County.

 

Liao said the oil company is working with the local government in the handling of the matter. Emergency headquarters have been established under the leadership of deputy mayor Zhou Mubing.

 

 

 

On Saturday, a 10-meter-high flame burned at the mouth of the well, and five to six water columns along a 100-meter stretch of the bank of the Gaoqiao River burst.

 

The area has been cordoned off and about 500 cubic meters of high-density slurry and 300 tons of cement have been trucked to the site.

 

Materials and equipment have been prepared, and the well will be capped when CNPC experts CNPC and the State Administration of Work Safety give the go-ahead, according to Xu Huafang, director of the Sichuan Provincial Petroleum Administration.

 

10,000 people who lived around the gas well have been evacuated to adjacent townships and five downtown locations.

 

No hydrogen sulfide has been detected in the air or water within a three-km radius of the well, according to CNPC technicians and local environmental experts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2006)