China has built six oilfields in desert areas in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region with each having an annual output of 1 million tons.

The oilfields are located at the Tarim Basin in northern Xinjiang and Junggar Basin in southern Xinjiang.

An oilfield, named Hadexun, at the Tarim Basin turns out 1.5 million tons of crude oil a year, becoming the largest desert oilfield in China. The accumulated output of Lunnan, Tazhong and Cainan oilfields have surpassed 10 million tons.

Operation of these oilfields raised the region's annual oil output from 7 million tons in 1990 to 21.41 million tons in 2003.

Xinjiang is expected to replace northeast China as the new energy base of China. It will supply over one fifth of China's total oil by 2010, including an output of 35 million tons and an import of 10 million tons of crude oil from Kazakhstan.

Source: Xinhua