Daqing Oilfield, China's No.1 terrestrial oil producer, is expected to triple its natural gas production while stabilizing crude output in the years to come.

Wang Yongchun, general manager of Daqing Oilfield Co. Ltd., confirmed Sunday his company would be producing 8 to 10 billion cu m of natural gas annually by 2020, accounting for 20 to 25 percent of the company's oil and gas production total.

The target has been written in a document entitled "Outlines Regarding Sustainable Development of Daqing Oilfield" which was completed in June this year.

Discovered in 1959, development of the Daqing Oilfield began in the next year. It has so far produced more than 2 billion tonnes of crude, accounting for 40 percent of the national total for the same period.

The oilfield produced 40.2 million tonnes of crude oil and 2.76 billion cubic meters of gas (equivalent to 2.76 million tonnes of oil) last year. The gas output accounted for 6.4 percent of the oilfield's oil and gas total.

The geological gas reserves around Daqing Oilfield has been estimated at 1 trillion cubic meters. But the proven gas reserve was only 100 billion cu m by 2005, said Wang.

Local residents in Daqing and Harbin, two cities in Heilongjiang Province, have benefited from the company's intensified gas extraction plan.

Natural gas produced by Daqing Oilfield has been used as fuel in nearly 600,000 homes, and the number will go beyond 1 million by the end of this year, according to fuel gas companies in Daqing and Harbin.

(Xinhua News Agency September 13, 2009)