China has discovered over 30.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves in the country's southwest Sichuan Province, its operator, China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) announced on Monday.

In the Bazhong gas field in the Sichuan Basin, Sinopec found gas deposits spanning an area of 810,000 square meters with a thickness of 29 meters. The company described the reserves as being typical extra-deep, some 4,550-5,225 meters below the surface.

Yang Gongtian, deputy general manager of Sinopec Southwest Oil and Gas Company, told China Media Group (CMG) that "Sinopec Southwest currently produces more than 25 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, of which deep shale gas and ultra-deep natural gas account for 70 percent, contributing to promoting large-scale and efficient development of ultra-deep natural gas in China."

The amount of natural gas resources and production in the Sichuan Basin ranks first in China.

In the past decade, the world's first ultra-deep, high-sulfur reef gas field with a height of more than 7,000 meters, the Yuanba gas field, and the first deep shale gas field with proven reserves exceeding 100 billion cubic meters have been successfully developed here.

So far, the natural gas reserves of Sinopec Southwest have exceeded 1 trillion cubic meters, with a cumulative production of 100 billion cubic meters, making the subsidiary the largest natural gas producer in Sinopec Group.