China sentences oil thieves to death
SHANGHAI, July 28 (Reuters)
China has sentenced to death two leaders of a gang which stole crude
oil by drilling into pipelines, causing 400 million yuan ($53 million)
in damage, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Saturday.
A court in Dongying city, in the eastern province of Shandong, gave a
suspended death sentence to another gang member on Friday and sentenced
seven others to prison terms ranging from three years to life.
In 2005 the gang slipped into a seabed oil extraction centre at
China's Shengli oilfield and drilled into a pipeline, but fled when they
found it contained natural gas instead of oil. A month later, they stole
10 tons of crude oil from a nearby pipeline, Xinhua said.
The holes in the pipes were not discovered until months later, by
which time the leaks had disrupted local fisheries. |