China Sentences Oil Thieves To Death
Date: 30-Jul-07
Country: CHINA
A court in Dongying city, in the eastern province of Shandong, gave a suspended death sentence to another gang member on Friday and sentenced seven others to prison terms ranging from three years to life.
In 2005 the gang slipped into a seabed oil extraction centre at China's Shengli oilfield and drilled into a pipeline, but fled when they found it contained natural gas instead of oil. A month later, they stole 10 tons of crude oil from a nearby pipeline, Xinhua said.
The holes in the pipes were not discovered until months later, by which time the leaks had disrupted local fisheries.
