The China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), the country's second largest oil and gas company, announced Tuesday it has discovered a large gas field in the northeastern part of Sichuan Province with verified reserves topping 114.4 billion cubic meters.

The Puguang Gas Field is the largest gas field ever discovered in the Sichuan Basin, and one of the largest in the country.

The Ministry of Land and Resources has confirmed that the field has 87.8 billion cubic meters of extractable reserves.

Sinopec is accelerating efforts to develop the field to meet the country's voracious demand for fuel.

(Xinhua News Agency March 30, 2005)