BEIJING

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/07/20/china-rushes-oil-spill-inte...

BEIJING (AP) — China rushed to keep an oil spill from reaching international waters, while an environmental group tried to assess if the country's largest reported spill was worse than has been disclosed.

Crude oil started pouring into the Yellow Sea off a busy northeastern port after a pipeline exploded late last week, sparking a massive 15-hour fire. The government says the slick has spread across a 70-square-mile (180-square-kilometer) stretch of ocean.

The cause of the blast was still not clear Wednesday. The pipeline is owned by China National Petroleum Corp., Asia's biggest oil and gas producer by volume.

Images of 100-foot-high (30-meter-high) flames shooting up near part of China's strategic oil reserves drew the immediate attention of President Hu Jintao and other top leaders. Now the challenge is cleaning up the greasy brown plume floating off the shores of Dalian, once named China's most livable city.

The environmental group, Greenpeace China, shot several photographs at the scene Tuesday before their team was forced to leave. They showed oil-slicked rocky beaches, a man covered in thick black sludge up to his cheekbones, and workers carrying a colleague covered in oil away from the scene...