China reports major gas find in northeast Sichuan basin
07 Mar 2007
Mumbai:
China has reported one of the country's largest natural
gas finds at Puguang, which has led to a substantial
revision of the country's proven oil reserves to over
500-billion cubic meters.
The Puguang gas field, in northeast Sichuan basin, in
southwest China is expected to yield 12-billion cubic
meters of natural gas annually by 2008, China's oil
giant Sinopec Corporation said.
"The discovery is not only good news for the Sichuan
Basin, it will also provide a model for exploration
in other fold-thrust belts worldwide," a Sinopec
source said.
Sinopec will invest $5.06 billion (40 billion yuan)
to develop the Puguang gas field, Xinhua news agency
reported.
The company also plans to build a pipeline to supply
natural gas from Puguang to Shanghai, the country's
financial hub in East China.
The Puguang gas field, which covers 86 square km, was
discovered in 2003 and the techniques used to discover
and explore the gas field had won Sinopec China's technological
progress prize for 2006.
Puguang is expected to make a massive contribution to
the China's thirst
for natural gas, which so far only had four natural
gas fields with deposits exceeding 200 billion cubic
meters.
The gas field is expected to be in operation in May
2007