Crude oil output from China's biggest oilfield Daqing during the first half of this year totaled 22.66 million tons, exceeding its oil production target, a country's major national newspaper reported Sunday.

The People's Daily said the oilfield also produced 1.229 billion cubic meters of natural gas during the six-month period.

Meanwhile, the proved oil reserve in the field has also continued to grow, bringing the remaining proved oil reserve to nearly 3.8 billion tons, according to the newspaper.

Located in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Daqing was first discovered 45 years ago and China has extracted 1.8 billion tons of crude oil since then, accounting for 40 percent of the country's total from its land-based oilfields, the newspaper reported.

Wang Yupu, chairman of the Daqing Oilfield Corp., said the company has introduced a package of new oil extracting techniques to extend the production life of the oilfield and improve economic efficiency, it said.

China had been classified as a nation with littler oil reserve by many geologists home and abroad until the discovery of the oil field, which was helped by the revolutionary oil prospecting theory of late Chinese geologist Li Siguang.

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2005)