BEIJING, March 21 -- The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) said Friday it plans to extract 11 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually from the Sichuan Basin in southwest China.

The goal will be achieved in four years.

The Longwangmiao gas block in trial operations can yield 1 billion cubic meters of gas annually. Construction has also started on a six-billion output capacity,the CNPC said.

Situated in Suining and Ziyang cities of Sichuan Province as well as Chongqing Municipality, the Longwangmiao gas block boasts a reserves of 440 billion cubic meters, about 300 billion of which can be explored with existing techniques, according to an estimate by the China's official reserves assessment authorities.