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China Finds Huge New Gas Field
DATE: May 23, 2002
Copyright 2002 Associated Press.
All rights reserved.
BEIJING (AP) - Researchers have discovered China's biggest natural gas reserves to date in its northern region of Inner Mongolia, the government said Thursday.
The field is believed to hold 21 trillion cubic feet of gas, said Yan Qisheng, an official of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
However, Yan said the discovery shouldn't affect China's decision on a massive gas import deal to be announced soon. Companies from Indonesia, Australia and Qatar are competing for the 20-year contract.
``China's demand for gas is big, and the supply cannot meet demand,'' said Yan, director of the ministry's department of resource development.
The Inner Mongolia field is expected to supply Beijing and other major eastern Chinese cities, Yan said. They are trying to reduce air pollution by using cleaner gas and less coal and imported oil.
Beijing has some of the world's dirtiest air and has promised to clean it up before the 2008 Olympics are held in the Chinese capital.
The new gas field was found in the Erdos region of Inner Mongolia in 1999, but its vast size wasn't known until recently, said Yan.
Beijing should start receiving gas from the field within two years, she said. The field is expected to produce about 227 billion cubic feet of gas a year.
Yan said she didn't know the official estimate of the value of the gas, but said it probably would be priced at about 19 cents per 100 cubic feet at the wellhead. At that price, the total deposit would be worth about $40 billion.
Beijing consumes 49 billion cubic feet of gas per year, but that accounts for only 10 percent of its energy use, according to the state newspaper China Daily.
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