China oil firm CNPC's quake damage $244 mln -paper

SHANGHAI, May 20 (Reuters)- China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), China's top oil and gas producer, had 1.7 billion yuan ($244 million) of direct economic losses from last week's devastating earthquake in southwest China, the official Shanghai Securities News said on Tuesday.

CNPC, the parent of PetroChina (0857.HK) (601857.SS), had 908 gas stations, 47 oil tanks, and 71 oil and gas pipelines affected by the massive quake, the paper said.

Five of the firm's employees died in the quake, China's worst since 1976 with the death toll exceeding 34,000.

Sichuan, a largely rural province that accounts for 4 percent of China's economy, is a major gas producer accounting for more than 20 percent of China's total output.

CNPC also said on Tuesday that PetroChina had restored 99 percent of its natural gas production in southwestern China by late Monday after the earthquake temporarily disrupted operations in the region. (For details click [ID:nPEK36412])

On Monday, China said it released 8,312 tonnes of strategic reserves of refined fuel to help relief works in quake-hit Sichuan and Gansu provinces, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on Monday.

CNPC would also add 27,000 tonnes of diesel supplies to Gansu, another report on NDRC's website said. ($1=6.970 Yuan) (Reporting by Joseph Chaney; Editing by Edmund Klamann)