Pipeline explosion halts gas supplies to southern China: Xinhua
BEIJING | Sun May 26, 2013 1:50am EDT
(Reuters) - A section of a cross-country gas pipeline in China exploded on Sunday, injuring at least two people and halting gas supplies, local media said.
The second west-east natural gas pipeline, which transports gas from central Asia to south China, exploded in an industrial zone in China's southeastern province of Jiangxi, state news agency Xinhua said.
The pipeline has a capacity to transport 30 billion cubic meters of gas a year.
Energy released from the explosion knocked over people hundreds of meters away, Xinhua said, without detailing the length of the exploded pipeline. The government is investigating the cause of the explosion, the agency said.
China, the world's largest energy consumer, has two cross-country gas pipelines that carry gas imports across the nation. It is building a third.
The government wants to secure around 30 percent of China's natural gas consumption from imports, up from just 6 percent in 2007.
(Reporting by Koh Gui Qing; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
