The crude oil output of the Tarim oilfield in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region this year hit 10 million tons Friday, sources with the Tarim Oilfield Company said.

The 560,000-sq-km Tarim Basin, known as the country's strategic energy base, has thus become the sixth largest oil producer in China with an annual production exceeding 10 million tons, said Sun Longde, general manager of the company.

The company expects to produce oil and natural gas equivalent to 11 million tons by the end of this year, said Sun.

As the output of the large oilfields in east China declines yearly from 1990, the yield in Tarim keeps rising, giving strong support to the country's economic development with rising energy demand, he said.

Last year, the Tarim Basin yielded 8.86 million tons of crude oil -- exploited jointly by Tarim Oilfield Company, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, and the Northwest China Branch of China National Petrochemical Corporation.

Dubbed as the "sea of hope" for China's oil and gas industry, the Tarim Basin boasts estimated resources of 10.7 billion tons of crude oil and 8.39 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, while its proven geological reserves stand at 526 million tons of oil and 723 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

Exploration for oil and gas started in the Tarim Basin in 1952,but massive exploitation was launched in 1989, when the country put forward the strategy of "developing oil resources in the west and stabilizing oil production in the east."

So far, 15 oilfields and 14 gas fields have been found in the basin, including the country's largest desert oilfield -- Tazhong.    
 
The Tarim Oilfield is also one of the major gas suppliers to the country's massive west-to-east gas transmission project, which expects to provide eastern China with 6.5 billion cubic meters of gas this year through the west-to-east pipeline.

(Xinhua News Agency December 17, 2005)