China produced 23.86 million tons of heavy oil last year, representing 13.2 percent of the country's oil output. Heavy oil - a catch-all name for oil shale, oil sand and natural asphalt - and natural gas hydrate are becoming increasingly important substitutes for conventional energy resources in China.

Production is increasing and technological advances are helping to reduce exploitation costs. New policies will be formulated to encourage the exploitation of unconventional oil and gas resources to ease China's energy shortages. Developing unconventional oil and gas resources has been written into the country's 11th Five Year Plan (2006-2010) as a necessary measure to meet a voracious demand for energy.

China is facing rising pressure from energy shortages as international oil demands continue to climb and conventional oil resources become scarcer. China boasts abundant heavy oil resources and has discovered a total of 70 heavy oil fields in 12 basins after 50 years of exploration.

Five major heavy oil production bases have been established -- four offshore bases in central China's Henan Province, northern Liaoning and Heilongjiang and northwestern Xinjiang, and a fifth base offshore.

Thick oil produced by these five bases currently accounts for 10 percent of the country's total oil output. China has 19.8 billion tons of onshore heavy oil and asphalt reserves, which account for 20 percent of the country's total petroleum reserves.

Meanwhile, the country has 47 billion tons of oil shale reserves, with 16 billion tons exploitable, and has six billion tons of oil sand reserves, with half of them exploitable.

Source:佚名