Work underway to restore energy supply in quake-hit regions

BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- China is working to restore electricity and petrol supply in areas stricken by the 7.0-magnitude earthquake in southwest China's Sichuan Province, companies and authorities said Sunday.

Of around 186,600 households cut off power in Sichuan's Ya'an City and its neighboring regions after the quake, more than 70 percent have had electricity now, said sources at the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), the country's largest grid operator.

An emergency team from the SGCC have restored electricity supply for more than 1,000 households in Baoxing, a county that neighbors the epicenter and had been isolated till destroyed highways leading there were repaired earlier on Sunday, according to the SGCC.

No major damages were found at hydropower stations and dams in the Ya'an region, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA).

Meanwhile, the NEA said seven oil depots and 271 filling stations were damaged during the quake but refined oil stockpiles in Ya'an remain adequate.

A section of the only refined oil pipeline in Sichuan and the neighboring Chongqing city returned to operation on Saturday afternoon, about seven hours after the quake knocked out power at two stations along the line in Sichuan, sources with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) said Sunday.

The CNPC has dispatched 20 tankers to the quake-hit regions and increased oil supply to those areas by 3,500 tonnes, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic planner.

The NDRC said it has told China's largest two oil companies to ensure service stations in the quake-hit areas operate 24 hours a day.

A 7.0-magnitude quake jolted Lushan County of Ya'an at 8:02 a.m. Saturday Beijing time, killing 186 people so far, with 21 reported missing and 11,393 others injured, according to latest statistics gathered by the provincial emergency response command center.