Oil giant Sinopec Corporation has discovered China's biggest ever natural gas field with proven deposits of 251 billion cubic meters in the southwestern Sichuan Province.

 

Sinopec said in its annual report released Monday that it has submitted a plan to authorities for the development of the Puguang natural gas field in northeast Sichuan.

 

The plan proposes commercial production from 2008 with an annual production of 4 billion cubic meters, which could double by 2010.

 

Sinopec plans to build a pipeline to supply natural gas from Puguang to Jinan, capital of Shandong Province in East China.

 

Prior to Puguang, China only had four natural gas fields with deposits exceeding 200 billion cubic meters each, the report says.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 4, 2006)