China is adopting new methods to calculate and
register its verified oil and natural gas reserves.
On Thursday, Vice Minister of Land and Resources
(MLR) Wang Min announced that the new national standard will be
based on the Classification of Resources and Reserves of Oil and
Natural Gas which began to be used on October 1.
He said that increased accuracy will facilitate the
rational use and protection of reserves.
A group has been established to direct the work,
which includes members of MLR and three state-owned oil companies,
he said. Calculations will be completed by the middle of 2006.
China's booming economy is being affected by energy
shortages, including oil. Experts predict that oil imports will
jump by nearly 10 percent this year to 100 million tons, accounting
for 40 percent of the total consumed.
To ease shortages, the government stepped up
prospecting and extraction of domestic oil and natural gas
resources.
Last year alone, 22.7 billion yuan (about
US$2.7billion) was spent on prospecting, up 20.55 percent on the
previous year.
According to official figures, China has 106.9
billion tons of oil reserves and 53 trillion cubic meters of
natural gas reserves.
However, it is estimated that workable oil deposits
are between 13 billion tons and 16 billion tons, while that of
natural gas are 10 to 15 trillion cubic meters.
(Xinhua News Agency November 25, 2004)