China's oil and gas reserves will grow steadily in the coming 20 years and the crude production will reach 150 million tons in 2010, a senior official from PetroChina said Thursday.

China will have a bright prospect of onshore oil development, through the efforts of enhanced exploration and rational development, said Jia Chengzao, chief geologist of PetroChina.

"In the east China, oil exploration will be enhanced to find more reserves, build new productivity and ensure that the early oil production maintained around 100 million tons," Jia told delegates attending China's Country Presentation during the ongoing 18th World Petroleum Congress.

He further noted that in the west onshore China, the government is to further the exploration efforts in frontier areas and basins, target to find large-medium oil and gas fields and realize the strategic resource backup and the rapid increase of production.

Jia also forecast China's crude onshore production will reach 170 million tons in 2020.

According to the official, by the end of 2004, China's remaining onshore recoverable oil resource is 13 billion tons and the onshore crude production reaches 143 million tons.

PetroChina is a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China's largest oil producer.

Over 3,500 petroleum executives, 250 students and 400 journalists worldwide are gathering at Johannesburg to attend the 18th World Petroleum Congress, the first time the World Petroleum Council (WPC) holds its tri-annual event on the African continent in 72-year history.

Founded in London in 1933, the WPC is an international, unbiased, non-political organization that provides a forum for discussing world issues facing the oil and gas industry. It is dedicated to scientific advances in the oil and gas industries, technology transfer and to promote the management of the world's petroleum resources for the benefit of mankind.

The WPC's 62 member countries represent over 90 percent of the world's major oil producing and consuming nations in the world.

(Xinhua News Agency September 30, 2005)