China saw newly-proven oil reserves of 2.42 billion tons in the 2000-2005 period, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) announced here Tuesday.

An additional of 1,700 billion cubic meters of gas was verified in the same period, said Chen Geng, General Manager of the CNPC, Chna's largest oil and gas producer.

The Daqing Oilfield in northeast China maintained an annual oil and gas output of 45 million tons. The annual oil and gas output of Changqing and Tarim oilfields in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region exceed 10 million tons each.

CNPC's crude oil refining capacity reached 125 million tons last year, an increase of 20 million tons compared with 2001.

With completion of five major gas pipelines between 2000 and 2005, CNPC has basically built a national gas distribution network. Oil pipelines now link major cities in Western China. An oil pipeline from Kazakhstan to China has become operational, said Chen.

CNPC has also increased cooperation with foreign partners in forms of transnational acquisitions and venture exploration.

In the past five years, CNPC invested 59.6 billion yuan (7.36 billion U.S. dollars) in verifying 1.48 billion tons of oil and expanding its oil and gas production capacity by over 50 million tons.

Source: Xinhua