China to Explore Oil in Xinjiang Region

Chinese Vice-Premier Zen Peiyan has called for more oil exploration at the promising northwestern Xinjiang region, during a visit to already existing wells in Tarim, national newspapers reported today.

Xinjiang produced last year 22 million tons of oil and plans are to more than double the output to 50 millions tons by 2010.

But some experts say much more oil and gas is to be found, considering that 80 per cent of the potentially rich areas have not yet been explored .