According to Chen Geng, Deputy General-manager of China Petroleum Group Co. the natural gas reserve at the very head of the west-east pipeline gas supply in Tarim Basin, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has reached an amount of 8.4 trillion cubic meters. The major gas-reserve area around Kuqa in north Tarim Basin has been exposed to have a geological natural gas reserve of some 622.4 billion cubic meters of which that can be exploited will be up to 437.2 billion cubic meters. And towards 2010 the accumulated gas-deposit will be proven to be over 1 trillion cubic meters. The Changqing in Ordos Basin at the middle of the west-east pipeline gas project sees a natural gas reserve of over 10 trillion cubic meters. Up to now, the reserve that has been proven has reached more than 1.1 trillion cubic meters and that can be exploited amounts to 751.0 billion cubic meters. As to the building-up for natural gas production the Changqing area as a setting-out for gas supply along the west-east pipeline gas project has been brought up to an annual production capacity of 7.3 billion cubic meters. It is expected that the accumulated production capacity to be completed this year will exceed 8 billion cubic meters. In the Kola2 gas-field of the main gas supply area in the Tarim Basin an auxiliary project of the area will be brought to finish for an annual production of 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas. As estimated the central treatment plant for natural gas and the project for export from the Tarim Basin will be brought to finish one after another. The two natural gas areas, Changqing and Tarim will be able to jointly form an annual and stable natural gas-supply capacity of 20 billion cubic meters. The west-east pipeline gas-supply project, starting from the Tarim Basin of Xinjiang in the west is to end in Shanghai in the east, extending a total distance of some 4,000 kilometers. Its objective markets are Shanghai Municipality, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in the Yangtze River Delta as well as Henan and Anhui, the provinces along the pipeline, which has formally supplied Shanghai with natural gas in commercial terms on the New Year¡¯s Day of 2004. Again as learned China Petroleum Group owns the four natural gas reserve areas of Sichuan, Ordos, Tarim and Qaidam with a reserve of over 28 trillion cubic meters. But so far that has been proven is not up to one tenths of it and it sees a great potential for exploration ahead. PIN//People Daily