Zhai Guangming, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said at a recent forum on China's energy strategy that from 2006 to 2010, China's annual oil output is able to reach 185 million to 195 million tons.

China is able to keep such an output for some 10 to 15 years, he said.

China produced 182 million tons of crude oil in 2005 with its dependency on overseas crude oil and oil products reaching 42.9 percent.

According to Zhai, China is expected to see a stable growth of its proved oil reserves for at least 10 years.

Zhu Jianjun, a researcher with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China's largest oil producer, said that while there is great potential for more oil reserves to be discovered, China finds it more and more difficult in making new discoveries.

Many potentially proved resources are distributed in geologically complicated regions such as deserts, loess tablelands and deep ocean, making higher requirements for oil exploration technology and investment, said Zhu.

According to Zhu, major oil fields in east China has entered the output reduction phase while new fields in west China and offshore areas are substituting those in the east to become major oil suppliers of the country.

To make full development of old oil fields in the east and strengthening oil mining in the west and offshore areas, China is able to see its crude oil output surpass 200 million tons by 2020 and remain at 170 million tons by 2030, said Zhu.