China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the country's largest oil and gas producer, plans to nearly double gas output in the nation's resource-rich northwest by 2010, state media said Thursday.
The company, which is the parent of PetroChina, aims to increase its natural gas output at fields in Xinjiang region to five billion cubic metres (177 cubic feet) by 2010, the China Daily said.
That will be nearly double the level in 2007, when production in Xinjiang hit 2.9 billion cubic metres.
The company has pushed aggressively to boost gas production in recent years, as part of national efforts to use cleaner energy, the report said.
China has targeted production of 90 billion cubic metres of natural gas in 2010, raising the fuel's share in its total energy consumption to 5.3 percent from 2.8 percent in 2005, it added.
The country also aims to cut its reliance on coal to 66.1 percent by 2010 from 69 percent in 2005.
