China discovers 100-million-tonne oil, gas reserves in Tarim Basin

BEIJING -- China's largest oil refiner Sinopec has discovered a new oil and gas area with approximately 100 million tonnes of reserves in the Tarim Basin of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

These latest reserves in Sinopec's Shunbei oil and gas field are estimated to provide 88 million tonnes of condensate oil and 290 billion cubic meters of natural gas, said the company Wednesday.

Analysts said the discovery would further improve China's energy supply and help guarantee national energy security.

The Tarim Basin is a major petroliferous basin in China but is also one of the most difficult to explore due to its harsh ground environment and complicated underground conditions. Its oil and gas reserves are buried over 7,300 meters deep on average.

Sinopec's northwest branch has ascertained reserves of 1.67 billion tonnes of crude oil and 94.58 billion cubic meters of natural gas here, with a total output of more than 140 million tonnes of oil and gas equivalents so far.