The earthquake damaged many of Petrochina installations in the quake region but did not cause fundamental damage to operations, said company president Jiang Jiemin on Thursday.

Jiang said production at a natural gas well with a capacity of 6 million cubic meters per day was halted, but it is now producing2 million cubic meters per day.

Jiang said 728 PetroChina gas stations were partly damaged during the earthquake, and 78 of them stopped operation.

Out of 76 PetroChina drilling rigs in the quake region, only 16are still in operation.

No death of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) employees has been reported so far, but 56 were injured and 6 are still missing.

Oil pipeline capacity from Lanzhou to Chengdu and Chongqing cities is still almost one third below normal. The full capacity is 850 cubic meters per hour.

The crude oil pipeline from Urumqi, capital of northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province, is in normal operation, said Jiang.

PetroChina is the listed subsidiary of CNPC.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2008)