BEIJING (Bloomberg) -- China ordered coal mines, chemical plants and oil and gas wells to halt production to avoid further casualties after the country’s strongest earthquake in 58 years killed almost 10,000 people.

Companies in affected areas must evacuate workers and can’t resume output until conditions allow for safe operations, the Beijing-based State Administration of Work Safety said on its website on Tuesday. Sichuan province, where Monday’s 7.9 magnitude temblor struck, holds about 40 percent of China’s natural gas reserves and accounted for 22 percent of its output in 2006.
The earthquake damaged power plants and transmission lines and may cut the nation’s energy demand. The State Electricity Regulatory Commission, China’s power industry regulator, yesterday ordered “24-hour” monitoring at generation and distribution networks asked utilities to report accidents immediately.
“This earthquake in China may impact demand from power plants being down,” Phil Flynn, a senior trader at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago, said in a telephone interview. “Demand for oil was already down in April.”
China’s oil imports, third-highest in the world, fell for the first time in 18 months in April as record crude prices discouraged refiners from purchasing oil to turn into fuel for sale below cost. Oil for June delivery fell a much as or 0.9 percent, to $123.10 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
------------------Electricity grid
State Grid Corp. of China, the nation’s largest electricity distributor, said it has started repairs after about 5.5 gigawatts, almost 1 percent of China’s generation capacity, were idled in Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces because plants were disconnected from the national network.
While repairs have started in most areas, the company hasn’t been able to reach “two or three” counties because of damage to roads and telephone links, spokesman Zhang Haiyang said by mobile phone today. He declined to give a timetable for when the State Grid expects to fully restore power supply.
Two chemical plants collapsed in Shifang city in Sichuan, leaking over 80 tons of liquid ammonia and burying hundreds of people, the Xinhua News Agency reported Monday, citing the work safety bureau.
Power supply disruptions affected some small coal mines in Sichuan and Shaanxi, Huang Yi, spokesman of the state work safety bureau, said by mobile from Beijing Tuesday. No casualties have been reported so far at underground coal mines, he said.
----------------PetroChina, Sinopec
PetroChina Co. adopted “emergency controlling measures” to ensure safety, spokesman Mao Zefeng said by mobile phone. The country’s biggest oil producer restarted an oil products pipeline in western China that was shut for more than 10 hours for checks, said Yu Baocai, general manager at the company’s Lanzhou refinery.
PetroChina has natural gas production and piped-gas operations in Sichuan and also transports oil products by pipeline within the province, Mao said. He declined to comment on whether the company will shut its natural gas wells and the extent to which production may be affected.
China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., known as Sinopec, said today there hasn’t been any “huge impact” on its operations from the quake. The company’s Puguang gas field is located in the northeastern part of Sichuan and is far from epicenter of the earthquake in the western part of the province.
The earthquake had its epicenter 90 kilometers (56 miles) from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan in southwestern China.
Central China’s main railway remained closed, hampering efforts to aid survivors.
“It will be very hard to reopen the line” running from Baoji, in Shaanxi province, to Chengdu, Wang Yongping, a railways ministry spokesman, said by phone.
--------------------Aluminum, Zinc
Aluminum smelters in Sichuan reported little damage to facilities, said Wan Ling, an analyst with metals and mining researcher CRU International Ltd.
Sichuan’s output of aluminum and zinc is relatively small in national terms, said Michael Widmer, London-based analyst with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
The province’s aluminum production is about 600,000 tons, Wan from CRU said by phone from Henan province. China, the world’s largest producer, has a total aluminum capacity of more than 15 million tons.
Sichuan Hongda Chemical Industry Co., China’s third-largest zinc producer, and Chongqing Iron and Steel Co. had their shares suspended. The two companies are among 66 that had their stock suspended today until they provide investors with updates on the impact of the quake, according to a stock exchange statement.