China will begin a new program of exploration for mineral and energy resources, said the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) while reporting on the nation’s energy and mineral resources in the past decade. 

Yu Haifeng, director general of the Department of Geological Exploration under the MNR, said at a press conference that 23 oil fields with over 100 million tons of reserves and 28 gas fields with over 100 billion cubic meters of reserves have been found in the past 10 years. 

In the past decade, over half of the nation’s newly detected crude oil was in western regions of China, and the output from the region accounted for one third of the national volume. The newly detected natural gas volume in the region accounted for 80 percent of the overall volume, said Yu. 

Marine oil & gas output accounted for one quarter of the overall volume, said Yu. In 2021, the crude oil output of the Bohai Sea Oil Field saw significant growth, with annual output passing 30 million tons. 

Yu announced at the conference a series of new explorations targeting key strategic natural resources, to further enhance the nation’s mineral resources security.