China discovered 1.1 billion tons of oil reserves in last year, making 2015 the 13th year that China’s new oil has exceeded 1 billion tons, said Yu Haifeng, head of the Department of Mineral Reserves of the Ministry of Land and Resources at a press conference on Wednesday. 2015 is also the ninth consecutive year that newly discovered oil has exceeded 1 billion tons.

According to Yu, of the total oil reserves discovered, around 217 million tons were technically recoverable. China's oil output saw a 1.9 percent year on year rise to 215 million tons last year. By the end of 2015, China’s total recoverable oil had shot up to 3.496 billion tons.

With an annual discovery of over 1 billion tons, China’s newly detected oil reserves in the past five years total 6.1 billion tons, 6.5 percent higher than in the 2006-2010 period. More than 10 new oil fields were found, yielding discoveries of over 100 million tons.

During the 2011-2015 period, China's total oil production stood at 1 billion tons, up 9.9 percent from the 2006-2010 period.