Oil major PetroChina has made a new gas discovery in southwest China with proven reserves of 100 billion cubic metres (3.5 trillion cubic feet), a senior company official said.

The gasfield is located near Guang’an city in Sichuan province, the official said, a city famous as the hometown of former leader Deng Xiaoping. "The reserves figures are preliminary. We will continue our seismic study in the area to get more precise data,” he said. If the size of the reserve is confirmed it would be twice the size of another field PetroChina recently agreed to develop with western major Royal Dutch Shell.
China aims to increase the use of gas to eight per cent of its energy mix by 2010 from three per cent now, in part to help clear skies choked by smoke from coal-burning generators.
Gas from the Guang’an field is expected to be easy to recover and of a high quality, but it is too early to say when it can be recovered, the official added.
Sichuan is currently China’s largest natural gas producing area, with output of 946 million cubic feet per day last year, according to official data.
However, current gas production can barely meet booming demand in Sichuan and nearby Chongqing, which have a combined population of around 120 million.