China's Shenhua Group is expected to invest 36 billion yuan (5.27 billion U.S. dollars) over the five years to expand coal production capacity in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, a company executive said Saturday.

Shenhua's President Zhang Yuzhuo said the company plans to increase its coal production capacity to more than 60 million tonnes in Xinjiang by 2014.

Shenhua's coal output capacity in Xinjiang was 16.8 million tonnes last year, up from 10.47 million tonnes in 2005.

The money will also be used to facilitate coal conversion projects such as coal-to-oil projects, Zhang said.

Shenhua Group produced 281.25 million tonnes of coal nationwide in 2008, up 19.3 percent from a year earlier.

(Xinhua News Agency July 6, 2009)