Natural Gas Expected to Rise to 8% of Gross Energy Consumption in 10 Years

It is learned that the proportion of China's natural gas in the consumption structure of energy is expected to increase from the present 2.2 percent to 8 percent in 2010. In the coming 10 years, China's current energy structure will be obviously improved.

Zheng Hu, deputy general manager of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), disclosed at the news briefing on the "2000 China International Petroleum and Natural Gas Conference" that China has taken the development and utilization of natural gas as the focus of optimizing the energy structure and upgrading the petroleum industry in the early 21st century, striving to raise the proportion of natural gas in China's energy consumption structure from the current 2.2 percent to 8 percent in 10 years.

Zheng said that with the discovery of Tarim Oilfield in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the biggest natural gas field in China, there have been four State-level natural gas fields in west China, namely, Tarim, Qaidam, Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia and Chuanyu natural gas fields, thus making the foundation and conditions available for the development of natural gas industry. With the implementation of the west-to-east gas transmission project, plus the exploration of off-shore oil and natural gas and the utilization of foreign natural gas, the goal will be hopefully achieved in 2010.

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