Chinese authorities detained seven people from China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (386) , the nation’s biggest refiner, after at least 55 died in a pipeline blast. The personnel from Sinopec, as the refiner is known, and two from an economic development zone in China’s eastern Qingdao city were detained by police, the city’s Huangdao district government said yesterday on its official microblog . The explosion and crude oil leak on Nov. 22, the deadliest since at least 2005, adds to a growing toll from industrial accidents that’s building pressure for better safety standards and management. It shines a spotlight on management of state-owned energy companies after the government pledged this month to allow more private investment as part of the biggest reforms since the 1990s. “Someone has to be accountable for what has happened,” said Laban Yu, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Jefferies Group LLC. “Sinopec executives can only […]