Large oil field discovered in Xinjiang

An oil company announced Thursday that it had found a conglomerate oil field with an estimated one-billion-tonne reserve in the Junggar Basin in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The oil field in the Mahu Area, with a proven reserve of 520 million tonnes, may store up to 1.24 billion tonnes, according to the PetroChina Xinjiang branch,

Tang Yong, a geologist with PetroChina that is a leading oil producer in the country, said the area had the natural conditions for another one-billion-tonne reserve discovery.

New oil production capacity of 1.38 million tonnes has been built in the area over the past two years. Over six million tonnes of new capacity has been planned for 2016 to 2020.