Northwest China's Xinjiang region increased its proven natural
gas reserve to 1.29 trillion cubic meters in 2006, ranking first in
the country.
Xinjiang has an estimated natural gas reserve of 10 trillion
cubic meters, accounting for a quarter of China's continental
total.
Last year, Xinjiang added 140 billion cubic meters proven gas
reserve, with 110 billion found in Tarim oilfield, the largest in
the region.
The autonomous region saw a gas output of 16.1 billion cubic
meters in 2006, overtaking southwestern Sichuan Province to become
the country's top gas producer.
The output, an increase of 5.5 billion cubic meters over 2005,
compared with an estimated 12 billion cubic meters produced in
Sichuan, authority sources said.
The Tarim, Karamay and Tuha oilfields, the three major fields in
the region, produced 11 billion, 2.88 billion and 1.65 billion
cubic meters of gas respectively last year.
The Tarim oilfield is a source for the 4,000-km pipeline project
to bring natural gas from western China -- primarily Xinjiang Uygur
Autonomous Region and Shaanxi Province -- to 34 cities in the
economically developed eastern regions.
Last year, the region channeled 9.8 billion cubic meters of gas
to eastern regions.
(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2007)