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Saturday, July 17, 2010

China crude pipelines blast

Firefighters work at the oil pipeline blast site in Dalian. -- PHOTO: AP

BEIJING - FIREFIGHTERS have extinguished a fire that raged for more than 15 hours after two oil pipelines exploded in the port of Dalian in north-east China, the Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

An explosion at a pipe transporting crude oil from a ship to a storage tank blew up on Friday evening, causing a second, nearby pipeline to also explode.

No one was injured.

Both pipelines belonged to state-owned China National Petroleum Corp., China's largest oil company and parent of Petrochina.

State television showed dramatic footage of flames shooting into the sky as hundreds of firefighters battled to contain the fire.

The blaze at the larger, 0.9 meter-diameter pipeline was put out around midnight, but firefighters were unable to turn off the pump on the smaller line, Xinhua said.

The ship, a Very Large Crude Carrier, left the port undamaged, Xinhua said. -- REUTERS

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