Xinjiang Becomes China's Third Largest Oil Producer

Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has become China's third largest oil producer with a daily crude oil output of 70, 300 tons.

Xinjiang is the third region in China to have a daily oil output exceeding 70, 000 tons after northeast Heilongjiang and east Shandong provinces, China News Service quoted sources with the Xinjiang Oilfield Company as saying on Wednesday.

Xinjiang's petroleum industry started in 1953 with an annual output of 70, 200 tons a year, about what it now produces per day.

According to the 11th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Western Regions which was approved by the State Council last December, Xinjiang was listed as one of the six major oil and natural gas exploitation and processing bases in the western regions.

According to the plan, Xinjiang is expected to produce 26.1 million tons of crude oil in 2007.

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2007)