China has found 3.65 billion barrels of oil in north-western Gansu province, an engineer with state-controlled energy major PetroChina was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency on Friday.
But a PetroChina spokesman said on Friday he had no information about a discovery of this scale, and said any oil finds had to be confirmed by independent government agencies before they could be announced.
The 500 million tonne find - 3.65 billion barrels at a conversion rate of 7.3 barrels per tonne - would be equivalent to around four years of China's oil imports at current rates.
Liu Huaqing from the Northwest Branch of the PetroChina Exploration and Development Research Institute said the oil was split between two belts, both near the provincial capital of Lanzhou, Xinhua reported.
The 11,300 square kilometre Lanzhou-Yongdeng-Minhe belt has up to 340 million tonnes of oil, while the 15,000 square kilometre Yuzhong-Jingning-Jingyuan belt holds 160 million tonnes, the report said.
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