A massive oil deposit of 500 million tons has been discovered in an area near Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, an expert said Thursday.

The belt along Lanzhou, Yongdeng and Minhe has up to 340 million tons of oil deposit, the Yuzhong-Jingning-Jingyuan belt 160 million tons, said Liu Huaqing, an engineer with the Northwest Branch of the Petro China Exploration & Development Research Institute.

The Lanzhou-Yongdeng-Minhe belt covers an area of 11,300 sq km with an exploiting depth of 6,000 meters, and the Yuzhong-Jingning-Jingyuan belt covers 15,000 sq km with an exploiting depth of 3,000 meters.

"With more funding for exploration, we can have more and better deposits," said Liu.

Source: Xinhua