Oil and gas pipelines in China will be protected against theft, damage and construction encroachment under a draft law proposed by the State Council.

The draft law was sent to the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee for first reading yesterday.

The law is to "protect oil and gas pipelines, maintain transportation safety and public safety and safeguard the national resource supply."

The State Council in 1989 released Regulations on Oil and Gas Pipelines, which has been effective until now.

However, with demand for oil and gas increasing rapidly and new problems arising in the protection of pipelines, China urgently needed a special law, said Cao Kangtai, director of Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council.

Rapid urbanization has resulted in the reckless construction of buildings and roads within buffer areas for the pipelines in recent years, making access to the pipelines, as well as their protection, increasingly difficult, Cao said.

The network, which carries most of the country's crude oil and natural gas, is also threatened by rampant theft of oil and gas through illegal siphoning off the pipelines, Cao said.

"We need a special law to regulate and better coordinate pipeline construction with urban planning, to enhance protective measures, and to clarify the responsibilities of different departments," he told the 11th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress, which is convening from yesterday to Saturday.

The draft law requires governments at different levels to enhance supervision of the pipeline work. The departments included in the process are public security, quality supervision, and work safety supervision departments, particularly state and provincial-level energy departments.

The draft also details the responsibilities of enterprises that own and operate the pipelines, as well as planning, construction and protective measures.

It stipulates that enterprises have to establish accident emergency plans and report these plans to the local government. Those who fail to carry out necessary protection and safety-maintenance work will be penalized.

Those who steal from pipelines face fines of up to 10 times the value of the stolen oil or gas, according to the draft law. And those who commit these crimes will be charged with criminal liability.

Drilling pipelines to steal oil has become a serious crime in recent years. Thieves illegally drilled into the pipelines of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) 18,382 times from 2002 to 2006, causing the company a loss of more than 500 million yuan ($72 million).

In 2007, 10 criminals in Shandong were sentenced to death and imprisonment for stealing oil by drilling into a CNPC oil pipeline in the ocean.

The local court said the 10 committed severe crimes as the stealing not only risked explosion, but also polluted the ocean and caused huge losses for local fishermen.