Natural gas output at PetroChina's Changqing oilfield will rise 5.5 percent year on year to 20 billion cubic meters in 2010, a senior company official said Wednesday.

Ran Xinquan, general manager of the Changqing oilfield, said his company has carried out large-scale exploitation of its natural gas fields in the Erdos Basin in northwest China.

Along with the exploitation, the company has been involved in the construction of natural gas processing plants, Ran said.

Changqing oilfield has become China's largest natural-gas processing base after the fourth processing plant of the Sulige gasfield in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region went into operation, Ran said.

With the plant's newly added capacity of 5 billion cubic meters, Changqing oilfield's gas handling capacity totals 32.1 billion cubic meters per year, he said.

Changqing oilfield is China's second largest oilfield after Daqing oilfield in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.