CHINA National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), the country’s largest oil and natural gas producer and supplier, said a weekend fire at its refinery in Dalian City had been contained without casualties or environmental damage.

    The blaze, which started at 2:25 p.m. Saturday, was extinguished and brought under “complete control without causing any environmental damage,” the company said in a statement Sunday. The fire was extinguished by 7:57 p.m. the same day.

    “A comprehensive offshore environmental evaluation has started to monitor the water quality, and no pollution has been detected in the nearby sea area so far,” said Qi Xiangyang, director of the press information office at Dalian Oceanic and Fishery Administration, on Sunday.

    The fire was caused by a leak from a valve, according to CNPC, but the reason for the leak was still under investigation.

    “More than 60 fire trucks arrived at the scene, but it is only a small incident compared with the crude oil pipeline blast at a CNPC terminal in Dalian’s Xinggang port in July 2010,” said a resident surnamed Shang, who witnessed the incident.

    Although the company said no environmental damage had been detected so far, environmentalists expressed some skepticism about the assessment.

    An environmentalist surnamed Li at the Dalian Environmental Protection Volunteers Association said that because of recent strong winds in Dalian, it was hard to tell if the incident had polluted the surrounding environment.

    Residents in adjacent neighborhoods shut windows and doors after seeing the heavy smoke rising from the plant.

    A CNPC oil pipe exploded at Dalian port last year. The explosion caused a fire, and about 1,500 tons of oil leaked into the sea. (SD-Agencies)