China is expected to produce a total of 189 million tonnes of crude oil in 2008, an increase of 1.6 percent over last year, state media reported Sunday. PetroChina, the nation's leading oil producer, released figures saying China had found more than 20.7 billion tonnes of proven oil deposits in the past 30 years, the Xinhua news agency reported.
China produced 186 million tonnes of crude oil in 2007, according to Xinhua. PetroChina, like many European oil companies, measures its output in tonnes instead of the US standard of barrels. This year's output would be 189 million tonnes, an increase of 1.6 percent. Two oil fields account for most of the country's oil production.
The Daqing Oil Field in north-eastern China has pumped out 1.576 billion tonnes of crude oil over the past three decades - more than 40 percent of China's total onshore crude output during that period. The Shengli Oil Field on China's eastern coast has produced more than 805 million tonnes of crude in 30 years, or more than 20 percent of the onshore crude output nationwide for the period, Xinhua said. China is also expected to produce 76 billion cubic metres of natural gas in 2008, up from 69.8 billion cubic metres last year, the report said.
China's once voracious appetite for oil has falled sharply due to the global economic slowdown and inventories are surging, the China National Petroleum Corp, or CNPC, said last month.