This is the story we heard over and over again in Chaoxiao village, a small rural town in
western China.
Residents in this remote valley told us that last April, at around midnight, they were
awakened by a loud explosion at this natural gas drilling site in their community.
Those nearby saw a fireball rise a hundred feet into the air.
This grainy cell phone photograph was the only visual evidence we could find of the
incident.
Employees of SinoPEC, the energy giant that runs the drilling rig, and village leaders
are ordering residents not to speak about it.
This is Jonah Kessel, a video journalist reporting for the New York Times.
In February, I traveled with reporter Keith Bradshaw to these mountains in western China.
SinoPEC, China's largest energy company, has made the country's first commercially
viable shale gas discovery here, turning this once quiet village into a boom town.
For China, shale gas offers great promise.
It's a chance for the country to wean its dependence on energy imports
and reduce its reliance on coal, but there are also safety concerns for the
workers, residents, and the environment.
The incident last April has many in this community worried.
SinoPEC officials say it was a controlled gas release and that no one was killed.
Liu Jiajian was one of the closest residents to the explosion.
She lives just about a five-minute walk from the site.
Ms. Liu walked us to the drilling site where the incident took place.
On the way, she told us that SinoPEC officials visited her after the fire.
Several minutes after we arrived at the drilling rig, a van full of officials
showed up and demanded to know why we were there.
They refused to give their names or business cards or tell us if they worked
for SinoPEC. Although the company had told us that what
had happened last April was a controlled gas release,
these officials denied anything happened at all.
It was clear our presence and questions were unwanted.
The officials then tried to persuade us to go with them to get tea,
a practice police and officials use in China to unofficially interrogate people.
Trying to avoid detainment and not have our footage confiscated,
we politely refused the invitation and quickly drove to the nearest train
station where we were met by a plain clothed policeman
who came by to make sure we had actually left.
With SinoPEC pouring money into the valley and high rises under construction,
in what had been an impoverished farming community, the local consensus
is still to welcome the drilling rigs, even though
residents are still uneasy and shaken about the explosion last April.
