Chinese leaders said?Monday that oil, natural gas
prospecting should be prioritized in geological survey as the
fast-growing country tries to cope with its rising energy
demands.
In a written instruction to a national meeting on geological
work, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao listed exploring mineral resources,
raising energy efficiency, improving ecological environment and
preventing and controlling geological disasters as four major tasks
of geological work.
"Facilitating geological work is an important way to ease
resource bottlenecks and enhance domestic resource supply
capacity," said Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan, who attended the meeting.
For now and a period of time in the future, exploration of major
energy resources such as petroleum and natural gas should be paced
up to achieve breakthroughs in creating a batch of resource
bases.
The two leaders also stressed technological innovation in
improving geological survey.
(Xinhua News Agency April 5, 2006)
