A unit of state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. has discovered over 100 million tonnes of oil in north-west China; the biggest shale discovery in the nation to date. 

Xinhua news agency reported that the discovery in the province of Shaanxi is expected to produce 700,000 tonnes of shale per annum.

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Shaanxi is one of the five provinces that make up the Changqing Oilfield. PetroChina said these provinces are Shaanxi, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia. Reuters quoted China Petroleum Daily explaining that the new oilfield is part of the1 million ton oil-producing Ordos basin, where Changqing is located. 

A PetroChina executive told Want China Times that plans are being made to enhance its shale oil extraction and processing strategies. The executive added that shale "is the most practical conventional fossil fuel" that can be used for further development.

In 2013, PetroChina said its operations in the Changqing Oilfield exceeded 50 million tonnes in production, after reaching the 20-million-tonne mark in 2007.

"Changqing Oilfield has seen continuous growth of oil and gas production and has come on to the track of a rapid development since 2000, with its success due to the emancipation of mind and renovation of technology of Changqing people across several generations despite world acknowledged difficulties in oil and gas reservoir exploration and development," the company said.

Nearly 60 percent of China's oil consumption is imported, making it the world's biggest buyer of oil. That considered, Xinhua reported that the Chinese government is imposing measures, including solar and wind power, to keep foreign oil dependency at 61 percent.

However, energy giant British Petroleum said in a recent report that it expects the country's imported oil dependence rate to reach 75 percent.

The National Development and Reform Commission recently reported that the country's crude oil output for the first four months of the year totalled 69.58 million tonnes, a 1.6 percent increase year-on-year. Natural gas import also went up by 7 percent year-on-year to 19.8 billion cubic meters for the same comparable period.

TagsChangqing Oilfield, PetroChina, China National Petroleum Corp., Oil, shale, china oil, china shale