ABOUT 3.8 trillion cubic meters of natural gas deposits have been discovered in southwest China's Sichuan Basin, with verified exploitable reserves topping 600 billion cubic meters, Xinhua news agency reported.

The reserves were discovered in Dazhou, a gas-rich city in Sichuan Province.

By 2010, the newly found deposits will raise the city's gas output to 24 billion cubic meters and sulphur to more than 4.3 million tons, according to a Dazhou official at the on-going Western China International Economy-Trade Fair yesterday.

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the country's biggest oil and gas producer, and Sinopec Corporation, China's largest refiner, plan to build five purification plants in Dazhou and are expected to purify a total of 74 million cubic meters of natural gas a day by 2010.

Dazhou City, located in eastern Sichuan, covers an area of 16,600 square kilometers with a population of 6.46 million.