Sinopec Restores 80% of Quake Area Gas

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, the country's second-biggest oil producer, has restored 80 percent of disrupted natural gas supplies to areas in Sichuan Province hit by the country's most powerful earthquake in 58 years.

The southwestern unit of Sinopec, as China Petroleum is known, has restarted 838 oil and gas wells shut after the temblor, parent China Petrochemical Corp said in its newsletter Sinopecnews yesterday. It said daily output to the region has hit about 6.5 million cubic meters, according to Bloomberg News.

The company plans to start developing the Dayi gas field next year.