MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

China strikes huge gas deposit in northwest region

The new pipeline will annually transport 30 billion cubic meters

China's largest oil and gas company PetroChina has discovered a major gas field in the nation's northwest Xinjiang region, state media reported this week. The field, known as Dabei III, boasts an estimated reserve of up to 130 billion cubic meters reports the China Daily newspaper.

"It will serve as an important back up supply source for the west-east gas pipelines", the source said, adding that the company will drill more appraisal wells to determine the final reserve. The new well has a potential production of 286.000 cubic meters per day, according to Professor Dai Jinxin from the Chinese Petroleum Exploration and Development Research Center. The announcement of the discovery comes after PetroChina already listed in Hong Kong and New York, won approval last month for a domestic listing expected this year which could raise up to 40 billion Yuan (5.3 billion US dollars). Last August PetroChina's announced it will start building its second west-east natural gas pipeline in 2008, with gas transmission to come on stream in 2010. The new pipeline will annually transport 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas imported from central Asian countries such as Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, as well as gas produced in the Xinjiang region, the company said. The newly discovered gas field is potentially the third largest in Xinjiang, after the Kela II and Dina II gas fields, said Dai Jinxin, a researcher with an institute affiliated with PetroChina. Kela II and Dina II have proven reserves of 250 billion and 170 billion cubic meters respectively, adds the report. The three sources belong to the river Tarim basin, which has estimated proven reserves of 8 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, well above the 4 trillion in the southwest province of Sichuan. However Sichuan is currently China's main gas producing area, almost doubling Xinjiang province. Professor Dai said that the Dabei III field will be a significant boost for the second west-east pipeline that will link the Tarim basin with Shanghai, a distance of 4.000 kilometers.