Volume 3, issue #8 - 12-03-1998

sponsored by:

Further gas search along the Yangtze

Jan. 26, 1998 China will further tap natural gas resources along the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, according to an official with the China Oil and Gas Corp.
The natural gas is distributed mainly in the Sichuan Basin, which stretches from southwest China's Sichuan Province to Chongqing Municipality and central China's Hubei Province.
Total gas reserves there are estimated at 7 trillion cubic meters.
By the end of 1997, the proven gas reserves are 510 billion cm, 260 bn cm of which is dispersed in Chongqing, said the official.
He added that the basin produced 7.5 bn cm of natural gas in 1997.
As the country's largest gas field, the Sichuan Basin has produced 163 bn cm of natural gas since 1949, and relaxed the fuel tension in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, and Chongqing and other cities in the basin, he said.
Utilising the natural gas as raw material, China's largest nylon plant was built in Sichuan Province.
During the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996-2000) period, the Sichuan Basin's gas production capacity is expected to top 10 bn cm.
China Oil and Gas Corp. would further develop the gas-processing industry and establish a 6-bn-yuan ethylene factory, cooperating with overseas companies, the official said.
Once the factory is operating it will annually produce 1.43 million tons of methanol, 300,000 tons of ethylene, 195,000 tons of acryl and 60,000 tons of butene.
The official said that the corporation would invest 10 bn yuan to explore natural gas in Chongqing during the 1996-2000 period. Besides Sichuan and Chongqing, the gas produced in the Sichuan Basin will be transported to other Chinese provinces.