Xinjiang in NW China becomes country’s major oil, gas production base

The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has become China’s major oil and gas production base with its crude oil output predicted to reach 50 million tons by 2010.

Geological surveys show Xinjiang’s oil and natural gas deposits stand at an equivalent of 30 billion tons of oil, accounting for one fourth of the nation’s total, according to Sunday’s People’s Daily.