The US-based oil giant Chevron has won a bid last weekend to cooperate with China's largest oil producer in developing natural gas in southwest China's Sichuan Province, business insiders said.

The cooperation would cover the Luojiazhai gasfield that has a high sulfur content, ranging from 7.13 percent to 10.49 percent.

The operator of the gasfield - China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) was said to have begun last year to seek foreign partners in developing the field, which boasts a gas reserve of 58.11 billion cubic meters.

CNPC, also the parent company of the New York- and Hong Kong-listed PetroChina, expanded the area covered by the cooperation to four blocks in total this year, and the move would make it more attractive to foreign partners as some insiders said.

The US company has won the bid over rivals such as France's Total SA, the Royal Dutch Shell and the Statoil ASA of Norway, insiders said.

The two companies would have to sign a contract to fix how to split the total output from gasfields under their cooperation, they said.

CNPC has made no official announcement on the news yet.

Luojiazhai would be the third natural gas development project for the CNPC with foreign partners.

The company signed a deal with Total last year to explore the Sulige gasfield in the Erdos Basin of Inner Mongolia.

CNPC is also jointly developing the Changbei gasfield in the same region with Shell, and the two sides announced in March they had started commercial production in the field.

(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2007)