The first oil and gas pipeline protection law is implemented

From October 1, the “Oil and Gas Pipeline Protection Law” will be formally implemented, and the oil and gas pipeline that carries 70% of oil delivery tasks and 99% of natural gas transmission tasks will eventually have laws to follow. This is also China's first special law to protect specific facilities.

In recent years, pollution caused by pipeline damage and oil and gas pipeline accidents caused by third-party violations in China has been more frequent, which has caused widespread criticism from the public and the public. In this regard, the "Oil and Gas Pipeline Protection Act" stipulates that: If oil leaked from pipelines and oil discharged from pipeline repairs cause environmental pollution, pipeline enterprises shall promptly administer them. If a third party causes the pipeline to leak and cause environmental pollution, the pipeline company has the right to recover the treatment cost from the third party.

It is worth noting that, compared with the US oil and gas industry laws, China still lacks a special "Petroleum Pollution Law" to clarify the oil compensation measures and further protect the environment and related residents and neighboring industries. For example, BP had to pay a huge compensation of US$20 billion due to oil spill incidents, and even if the nature of the case and responsibility were clearly identified in China’s oil spill, the marine administrative authorities could only impose a fine of up to 300,000 yuan on the responsible party.