China Knowledge
Oct. 20, 2006

Oct. 20, 2006 (China Knowledge) – China National Petroleum Corp., the Mainland’s largest oil producer, has just discovered the country's second-largest natural gas reserve the size of 150 billion cubic meters. 

The Tarim Petroleum unit of the company made the discovery in the Tarim Basin, which is located in the country’s northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The first trial was conducted this week and official exploitation will begin soon.

CNPC started the construction of the well in the basin about 10 years ago. Named Dabei, the new well is 5,198 meters deep and showed a good reserve result in June, according to an official from the unit.

The discovery of the reserve in Dabei will ensure a yearly increase of 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas to the gas transmission pipeline that extends to Shanghai, the official said.

Basins in the remote northwest of Xinjiang and the aging Daqing oilfield, China's biggest, in the northeast are the main oil producing regions in the country.

The country’s biggest discovery of 205 billion cubic meters has been the source of natural gas piped from the west to the east of China.

The west-east pipeline extends 4,000 kilometers and crosses 10 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. It has a designed annual gas transmission capacity of 12 billion cubic meters, and is capable of supplying gas for over 30 years.

China now has a confirmed oil reserve of 2.4 billion tons.