The fatal Chongqing gas field blowout was a grave accident
caused by negligence, Vice-Minister of the State Administration on
Work Safety Sun Huashan said on Friday, according to a CCTV
report.
This is the first time a senior official has publicly spoken out
on the nature of the accident that claimed 233 lives.
Sun was leading a group of seven Chinese experts on a visit to
the accident site in Kaixian County, in Southwest China's
Chongquing Municipality.
After five days of thorough investigations, Sun said they now
believe the accident was caused by numerous acts of workplace
negligence.
First of all, he said, developers of the gas well underestimated
the production capacity of the well and were not fully prepared
technically for such a productive well of high sulfur content
gas.
Moreover, workers on site did not follow operational regulations
strictly and did not allow enough time for sufficient drilling mud
to circulate to control the pressure.
Had workers been vigilant and detected signs of a forthcoming
accident in time, had they kept to the rules and not torn down a
necessary blowout prevention valve, or if they had ignited the
blowout gas quickly enough, fewer people would have lost their
lives, Sun said.
The next step, he added, is to decide who was responsible for
the disaster and have them pay the price.
This accident has taught a valuable lesson on workplace safety,
he said.
Those who were most affected by the accident, the people of
Gaoqiaozhen Township in Kaixian County, have returned to their
normal lives and students in primary and middle schools returned to
class on Friday.
(China Daily January 3, 2004)