Business

Editor: Bruce Meng
22 Sep 2008 10:03:15 GMT

BEIJING, Sept 22 – Natural gas output in Xinjiang, China’s leading gas producing region, is expected to increase 4 billion cubic metres (bcm) or 19 percent in 2008 from a year earlier, state media reported on Monday.

Crude oil production will probably grow 900,000 tonnes (18,000 barrels per day), or 3.4 percent from last year, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing estimates by the Xinjiang Bureau of Statistics.

China has invested billions of yuan in the landlocked northwestern region, hoping to rev up production in the under-developed municipality that borders Central Asian nations, to offset declining production in eastern China.

In the first half of this year, Xinjiang produced 11.94 bcm of gas, 16.2 percent more than a year earlier, and 13.29 million tonnes of crude oil, 4.4 percent more than a year earlier, the report said.

Xinjiang produced 193 million barrels of crude and 21 bcm of natural gas in 2007, which makes it the largest producer of oil and gas in China.