China's oil demand has been relentlessly pushing up its dependency on foreign imports. Imported oil now makes up 55% of total consumption.
Amid widespread concerns and worries over the country's energy safety, Peng Qimin, Director of the ministry's Geological Exploration Department, says confidence should be restored.
"Over all, we're optimistic about the next twenty years. We will see both a steady increase in oil production and a dramatic surge in gas production."
He says the Ministry of Land and Resources has carried out a systematic evaluation of the country's oil and gas reserves and production capacity from 2003 to 2007.
"We surveyed some of the biggest oil reserves, including the Bohai Bay, Ordos Region, Sichuan Basin, the Pearl River Delta, Southeastern Hainan and the Beibu Bay area to come up with this evaluation of the dynamics of oil production and reserves."
The survey reveals that from 2006 to 2010, total investment in oil and gas exploration has exceeded 280 billion yuan RMB. It helped discover nearly six billion tonnes of oil reserves.
Last year alone, total output of crude oil in China reached 200 million tones. And total gas production reached 94 billion cubic meters, twice the amount of 2005.
Che Changbo, a researcher in oil and gas strategy studies, sums up the importance of oil and gas exploration and production,
"China's oil production is now the fourth largest in the world. But to ease the pressure on imports, we have to step up exploration to build on the current 200 million tones annual output."
Che adds that stepping up exploration and production efficiency can also optimize the country's energy consumption structure and reduce the country's carbon emissions.
Currently two thirds of the country's energy relies on coal.
For CRI, I'm Zhou Jingnan.
