OREANDA-NEWS. January 21, 2014. China's work safety agency blamed the country's largest refining company and local officials in the city of Qingdao for pipeline explosions in November that killed 62 people and left 136 more injured.

Huang Yi, a spokesman for the State Administration of Work Safety said at a news conference that the initial oil leak at the pipeline wasn't properly inspected and that both the pipeline's operator and local government departments bore responsibility for the explosions. Mr. Huang said the initial emergency response was "inadequate" and that workers on the scene failed to detect lingering oil and gas in the eight-hour period between the initial leak and the explosions.

The pipeline is owned by China Petrochemical Corp., known as Sinopec Group. The transcript of the news conference released by the safety agency didn't mention Sinopec by name, but the official Xinhua news agency said the regulator blamed both Sinopec and local officials.

A Sinopec spokeswoman declined to comment, pending release of the full report. Mr. Huang said the report would be made available to the public after being reviewed by China's State Council, or cabinet. A representative for the Qingdao government, Su Wenjie, said the city didn't have an immediate comment and learned the results of the report only on Thursday.

In November, Chinese police detained nine people, including seven Sinopec employees and two government personnel after the explosions. Authorities in China often detain witnesses as well as suspects.

Mr. Huang said the accident caused a "direct economic loss" of 750 million yuan (\\$124.9 million) and added that pipeline corrosion allowed oil to leak into the sewage network under one area of the eastern Chinese city. He also said workers on the day of the incident were using a hydraulic hammer that wasn't explosion-proof, resulting in sparks that triggered the blasts.

Mr. Huang also cited the city's municipal design, saying that the oil pipeline was intertwined with the local sewage system and installed too close to nearby buildings.

Mr. Huang added that China currently has 655 pipelines spanning 102,000 kilometers. Some of the pipelines have been operating for as long as 40 years and are becoming corroded and brittle, he said. The safety watchdog is concerned about the "hidden dangers" posed by some oil pipelines that overlap with underground cable and sewage systems, he added.

In the past, Sinopec had said the area around the pipeline wasn't as populated when it was built nearly three decades ago. It also said authorities in another city who had authority over the pipeline didn't sign off on a previous effort to overhaul it.

The explosions upended cars and sidewalks and sent a massive plume of smoke into the air when it occurred on Nov. 22.