In recent years, safety accidents caused by gas explosions have occurred frequently. Gas pipeline operation and maintenance mechanisms and capabilities, safety monitoring and early warning, and supervision need to be strengthened urgently.

Recently, a gas explosion occurred in Yanjiao, Sanhe City, Langfang, Hebei Province. According to Liu Fulai, leader of the expert team of the accident investigation team, the accident was initially judged to be a gas pipeline leak, and the specific cause of the accident will have to wait for subsequent notice from the investigation team.

In recent years, safety accidents caused by gas explosions have occurred frequently. Gas pipeline operation and maintenance mechanisms and capabilities, safety monitoring and early warning, and supervision need to be strengthened urgently. The Yanjiao gas accident once again sounded the safety alarm, reflecting the importance of protecting infrastructure and "lifeline", and also highlighting the urgency of strengthening safety management and supervision.

The pipe network is generally disturbed by the surrounding environment

Urban gas pipe networks are generally buried underground in traffic lanes and are greatly disturbed by the surrounding environment. According to the national gas accident analysis report in previous years, third-party construction damage gas pipelines and facilities accounted for the highest proportion of accidents. According to Yu Jianjun, a professor at the Department of Building Environment and Energy Applications at the School of Energy and Security Engineering at Tianjin Urban Construction University, accidents caused by corrosion and leakage of old pipelines, non-implementation of regulatory measures, illegal operations, and limitations in self-safety precautions of gas users are all responsible for urban gas pipe networks. The reasons for accidents in the safe operation of the network.

"China has a history of large-scale popularization and utilization of natural gas for more than 20 years. Due to factors such as the shortage of professional talents at that time, backward technical standards, lax construction management, and inadequate operation management, the safety risks of urban gas pipeline networks and facilities are more prominent." said Cheng Xibing, a gas safety expert in Guangdong Province.

"For example, the number of emergency repairs for gas leaks in a city in the Pearl River Delta has increased year by year in recent years, and more than 90% of them have occurred in old gas pipe networks that have been ventilated for more than 10 years. In addition, due to poor management of illegal construction, many cities have many major hidden dangers of illegal buildings occupying gas pipelines." Cheng Xibing added.

一位燃气安全从业人士向记者形象地说明了燃气管道泄漏的严重性。“ Gas transmission pipelines are like a fuse in the middle of firecrackers, and residential buildings or commercial buildings are like a string of firecrackers. They explode one by one, which is very dangerous。”

It is worth noting that this is not the first time a gas accident has occurred in Yanjiao, Sanhe City. On May 16, 2022, a gas explosion accident occurred in a community in Yanjiao, resulting in two injuries; on June 24, 2022, a liquefied petroleum cylinder exploded in a merchant about 2 kilometers away from the explosion site, resulting in 2 deaths and 22 injuries.

However, on February 21, not long before the accident, Sanhe City had just held a monthly action meeting for the city's centralized production safety rectification. On March 12, the Sanhe City Emergency Management Bureau issued the "March Production Safety Risk Warning", proposing to carry out special rectification of urban and rural gas safety to "look back", carry out large-scale inspections and rectify the entire chain.

"The frequent occurrence of accidents shows that there are still many gas safety work that is not in place and needs to be implemented and strictly enforced." said Liu Xiaodong, a safety expert at the Safety Management Committee of the China City Gas Association.

Many "loopholes" need to be filled

According to many interviewees, there are many "loopholes" in gas pipeline safety that need to be filled.

Cheng Xibing said that there are currently some blind spots in government supervision. Competent departments at all levels focus on gas safety supervision work on gas stations, municipal pipe networks, residential gas and catering gas. However, courtyard gas pipelines and facilities in residential areas, schools, kindergartens and hospitals, and there is a lack of supervision on gas safety in various corporate canteens and production gas.

"In addition to regulatory blind spots, the lack and deviation of underground gas pipe network data also leave the government and enterprises at a loss. If you don't understand the account in your hand, the bottom line is unclear, and you can't see the flesh through the skin, problems will arise in actual operation." Yu Jianjun said.

"At present, there is indeed a problem that basic information of some gas pipelines is missing or there are many information errors, and the information of the underground pipe network is still 'muddle'. Coupled with reasons such as project construction and operation management, gas pipelines and facilities also generally have problems such as missing gas signs, unclear pipeline location and burial depth information, and missing as-built drawings. Information mismatch leads to inaccurate positioning of construction and safety inspections." Cheng Xibing holds the same view."After some gas pipelines were damaged by third-party accidents, the investigation found that the actual plane position of the gas pipelines deviated from the drawings and ground gas markings by up to 2 meters."

There are problems left over from history, as well as practical problems that we have to face.

"On the one hand, the renovation and renovation of old gas pipe networks requires a large amount of capital investment. In recent years, due to the upside down of gas prices, many gas companies have faced great pressure on their operations and are unable to afford the huge investment in the renovation and renovation of old gas pipe networks. On the other hand, local governments need to further improve the sharing mechanism for the investment costs of the renovation and renovation of old gas pipe networks, form a joint effort to speed up the renovation and renovation of old gas pipe networks, completely eliminate potential safety hazards in old gas pipe networks, and improve overall safety level." Cheng Xibing said.

The above-mentioned gas safety practitioners also said:"Urban gas safety production work is mostly supervised by the government and led by enterprises. Even if the government has strong emergency response forces and extensive functions, it is still difficult to complete all the work of governance. As operators, gas companies are sometimes affected by their own profit-seeking characteristics, which will reduce investment in production safety and risk management efforts."

“The most important thing is that the accountability and punishment mechanism after an accident needs to be used as a warning. If it is just pointed out, it will not have a deterrent effect.。”玉建军建议。

"We cannot test the risks of gas use at the expense of life safety. Therefore, when facing accidents, we must not only hold accountable, but also work hard to build systems and mechanisms." Liu Xiaodong said,"This requires strict government supervision. Government management is actually the supervision and management of the development of the gas industry. It regulates the healthy development of the gas market through guidance and formulation of rules."

Achieve refined safety management

At a time when the safety of the gas pipeline network does not have advanced and "cost-effective" monitoring methods, how to improve the operational safety of the gas pipeline network?

"Although supervision and management have been carried out, gas accidents still occur. The key is that the fundamentals of safety inspections have not been clarified. If there were no hidden dangers, accidents would naturally not occur. Therefore,'finding' is the key point, and 'assistance' should be used to supplement 'management' and find hidden dangers from the perspective of the enterprise." Liu Xiaodong said,"The gas industry has a long supervision chain, many links, and a wide range of aspects. It is difficult to effectively supervise it by relying on one or two departments and requires the cooperation of multiple departments."

For enterprises, large-scale investigations and full-chain rectification of urban gas safety risks will continue, and gas companies must clearly see this situation.

“Enterprises must carefully study punishment cases, and pay more attention to the study of laws and regulations, so that safety management can be refined.。”刘晓东表示。

Industry insiders said that