The fatal Chongqing gas field blowout was a grave accident caused by negligence, Vice-Minister of the State Administration on Work Safety Sun Huashan said on Friday, according to a CCTV report.

This is the first time a senior official has publicly spoken out on the nature of the accident that claimed 233 lives.

Sun was leading a group of seven Chinese experts on a visit to the accident site in Kaixian County, in Southwest China's Chongquing Municipality.

After five days of thorough investigations, Sun said they now believe the accident was caused by numerous acts of workplace negligence.

First of all, he said, developers of the gas well underestimated the production capacity of the well and were not fully prepared technically for such a productive well of high sulfur content gas.

Moreover, workers on site did not follow operational regulations strictly and did not allow enough time for sufficient drilling mud to circulate to control the pressure.

Had workers been vigilant and detected signs of a forthcoming accident in time, had they kept to the rules and not torn down a necessary blowout prevention valve, or if they had ignited the blowout gas quickly enough, fewer people would have lost their lives, Sun said.

The next step, he added, is to decide who was responsible for the disaster and have them pay the price.

This accident has taught a valuable lesson on workplace safety, he said.

Those who were most affected by the accident, the people of Gaoqiaozhen Township in Kaixian County, have returned to their normal lives and students in primary and middle schools returned to class on Friday.

(China Daily January 3, 2004)