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Natural gas output is set to almost triple by 2020 as the country’s top
producer steps up exploration and exploitation, a top expert told an
energy forum in Beijing Monday.

“Gas production will increase fast with the estimated 2020 production
hitting 150 billion cubic meters (bcm),” Qiu Zhongjian, an academician
at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told the forum hosted by the
China National Committee of World Petroleum Council.

Of the 58.6 bcm of natural gas extracted last year, PetroChina
contributed 70 to 80 percent, said Jia Chengzao, vice-president of PetroChina
and academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

This year, PetroChina plans to prove 100 bcm of natural gas at Songliao
Basin, where Daqing and Jilin oilfields are located.

PetroChina is confident of the appraisal results of its Sichuan
Longgang Gasfield - whose reserves are believed to be the highest in the
country - but Jia would not put a figure to it.

Also in Sichuan Province, the Guang’an region is believed to hold 1
trillion cubic meters of natural gas, Jia revealed yesterday.

“The potential is huge in Guang’an, with reserves in place reaching 145
bcm in 2006,” he said.

In the Junger Basin, PetroChina has made its largest gas discovery in
the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, with reserves in place of 170 bcm.
The newly confirmed long-term resource volume of Junger is up to 500
bcm, Jia said.

For oil, Jia estimated reserves in place at Nanpu Oilfield in the
eastern part of Hebei Province to be 2 billion tons oil equivalent in about
five years.

The company’s latest discovery in the Bohai Bay has combined proven,
probable and possible reserves of as much as 1.18 billion tons of oil
equivalent, the Ministry of Land and Resources certified last week.

PetroChina expects its oil output to stabilize at 107 million tons for
this year, around the same as last year as new fields make up for
depletion in older fields.

The country boasts extractable oil and gas reserves of 21.2 billion
tons and 22 trillion cubic meters, Qiu said.

By Wang Yu