PetroChina shuts fuel link on "quake lake" fears

BEIJING (Reuters) - PetroChina shut its main fuel pipeline in western China on Tuesday as a precaution, as torrents from a huge "quake lake" formed by the devastating May 12 earthquake threatened to damage the line.

But the temporary closure, the second time since the quake hit Sichuan nearly a month ago, would not impact fuel supply in the region, which now holds refined oil product stocks to last up to 20 days, the firm said in a statement.

The pipeline spans 1,240 km and can pump some 120,000 barrels a day of refined oil products from northwest Gansu province to southwest China.

The firm said the pipeline was shut at 1 a.m. EDT and should resume operations once the checks were completed but did not say how long it would take to complete the checks.

The speed of water flow from the Fu River, where the pipeline cuts across some 60 km downstream along the Tang Jia Shan "quake lake", rose to 1,400 cubic meters per second, from 200 cubic meters earlier in the day, the statement said.

The torrents are estimated to accelerate to a peak of 7,000 cubic meters per second, exceeding the pipeline's flood bearing limit, it added.

State oil firms PetroChina and Sinopec Corp rushed to replenish fuel stocks in Sichuan, a small oil user, shortly after the quake. The first closure of the same pipeline lasted only one day.

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu and Jim Bai; Editing by Sambit Mohanty)