(Yicai Global) June 21 -- China National Petroleum Corporation has discovered China’s largest shale oil deposit in the country’s largest oil and gas field.

The deposit, located in the Changqing oil field in the Ordos Basin of northwestern China, has proven reserves of about 1.1 billion tons of shale oil, Beijing-based CNPC said in a statement posted on its website yesterday.

CNPC unit Changqing Oilfield began stepping up exploration of the shale oil field in 2019, leading it to important discoveries that have increased proven reserves year by year. In the first five months of this year, the unit found 550 million tons.

The shale oil business has become a new driver of the company’s development, with its annual output expected to soar to 3 million tons by the end of 2025, the state owned energy giant said.

The Changqing field produced 60 million tons of crude oil and natural gas last year. China’s total output of oil and gas in 2020 was 195 million tons and 188.8 billion cubic meters, respectively.

Editor: Futura Costaglione