Chinese oil prospectors have discovered a high-yield oil reserve in the basin near the well-known Daqing Oilfield, in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

A corporate executive with the Daqing Oilfield Co. Ltd said the newly found reserve, with an estimated 25 million tons, is located in the Hailar Basin outside the Daqing Oilfield.

"The oil-bearing stratum extends four sq. km and the density of oil on each sq. km of the land exceeds 6 million tons," said the executive.

According to the company official, prospectors also found another oilfield in the same basin last year with exploitable oil reserves standing at 13.36 million tons.

While pledging to redouble oil prospecting efforts in the future, the official expressed the hope that an oil reserve of 100 million tons would be verified in the Hailar Basin and a new oilfield with an annual production capacity of one million tons of oil would be in place.

The necessity to find new reserves is obvious as reserves at Daqing Oilfield, the country's largest, are declining.

Currently, the proven exploitable oil reserves at Daqing are set at 570 million tons. The oilfield has so far produced 1.7 billion tons of crude oil.

(Xinhua News Agency December 17, 2002)