The U.S.-based oil giant Chevron has won a bid last weekend to cooperate with China's largest oil producer in developing natural gas in southwest China's Sichuan Province, business insiders said.  

The cooperation would cover the Luojiazhai gas field which has a high sulfur content, ranging from 7.13 percent to 10.49 percent.  

Two serious accidents had happened at the gas field, one in December 2003 when the toxic gas blowout killed 243 people and theother in March last year when thousands were evacuated after gas leak.  

The operator of the gas field - China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) was said to have begun last year to seek foreign partners in developing the field, which boasts a gas reserve of 58.11 billion cubic meters.  

CNPC, also the parent company of the New York- and Hong Kong-listed PetroChina, expanded the area covered by the cooperation to four blocks in total this year, and the move would make it more attractive to foreign partners as some insiders said.  

The U.S. company has won the bid over rivals such as France's Total S.A., the Royal Dutch Shell and the Statoil ASA of Norway, insiders said.  

The two companies would have to sign a contract to fix how to split the total output from gas fields under their cooperation, they said.  

CNPC has made no official announcement on the news yet.   Luojiazhai would be the third natural gas development project for the CNPC with foreign partners.   The company signed a deal with Total last year to explore the Sulige gas field in the Erdos Basin of Inner Mongolia.  

CNPC is also jointly developing the Changbei gas field in the same region with Shell, and the two sides announced in March they had started commercial production in the field.