China's largest oilfield Daqing aims to produce 400 million tons of crude in the next 10 years, according to officials with the oilfield.

"We will maintain our annual crude oil output at 40 million tons in the next 10 years," said Wang Yongchun, Party secretary of Daqing oilfield. "Sustainable production of Daqing is important to China's oil supply."

Currently in the Songliao Basin, where Daqing oilfield is located, billions of tons of crude reserves need to be further proved. This can help Daqing achieve its sustainable development target, said Feng Zhiqiang, vice-general manager of Daqing oilfield.

China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), owner and operator of the Daqing oilfield, in March announced that crude oil output at Daqing has cumulatively exceeded 2 billion tons.

With a history of 50 years, production from Daqing oilfield accounted for nearly 40 percent of China's onshore production, said the company.

Last year 40.2 million tons of crude oil were pumped from Daqing. The oilfield produced 2.76 billion cu m of natural gas in 2008, according to CNPC.

Officials with CNPC earlier said that one important task for the company in the next three years was to stabilize the output of some old oilfields and conduct the second round of development of these fields, including Daqing oilfield.

Under a three-year blueprint for the oil and gas industry by the National Energy Administration (NEA), China's crude oil output is expected to touch 198 million tons, while natural gas production will be 120 billion cu m in 2011.

The country will stabilize the output from oil fields in Northeast China and the Bohai Bay area, while speeding up development of fields in the Tarim, Junggar, Erdos and Sichuan basins.

Under the blueprint, China will build some large oil and gas production bases over the next three years.

China, the world's second biggest oil consumer, will also work to increase its offshore oil and gas production.

Crude output of CNPC, China's largest oil and gas producer, is expected to fall below 2008 level this year due to weakening demand, said Yu Baocai, vice-president of the company.

The demand is lower than last year and it is natural to have a lower output, Yu said.

(China Daily April 7, 2009)