China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the country's largest oil and gas producer, has said it plans to increase its natural gas output at the Xinjiang oilfield to 5 billion cu m annually by 2010.

After 2010, the company will double the natural gas output at the field in three to five years, CNPC said on its website Wednesday.

In the first quarter of this year, natural gas output at the Xinjiang oilfield was 861 million cu m, surpassing the full-year target, said CNPC.

"CNPC last year increased its natural gas output by 10 billion cu m," said Li Runsheng, the company's assistant president in March. "A total of 429.4 billion cu m of new natural gas geological reserves were found last year."

The company has put more emphasis on the development of natural gas in recent years, which is in line with the government's efforts to use cleaner energy. Natural gas production has thus seen 20 percent growth in three consecutive years, said Li.

CNPC had earlier said it increased gas output from the Tarim field in Xinjiang by more than 50 percent in 2007.

The Tarim field has become the nation's largest gas production base in less than 20 years of development, said the company.

In Xinjiang, the company also plans to invest 12 billion yuan this year in its Dushanzi refinery, the largest petrochemical project in the western region.

The company has invested 18.6 billion yuan in the Dushanzi refinery and petrochemicals complex, and will accelerate the project's pace this year, CNPC had earlier said.

China has set a target of raising the proportion of natural gas in its total energy consumption to 5.3 percent in 2010 from 2.8 percent in 2005. The targeted output of the fuel in 2010 is 90 billion cu m.

Analysts said China's natural gas demand is projected to reach 140 billion cu m in 2010, when the country will import around 20 billion cu m of natural gas.

CNPC started constructing the second west-east natural gas pipeline in February. It will mainly carry natural gas from Turkmenistan and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to the Yangtze and Pearl River deltas.

(China Daily April 24, 2008)