China's newly discovered oilfield in Bohai Bay will significantly boost the country's oil reserves and reduce its reliance on imports, the Shanghai Securities News reported on Wednesday.

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the country's No. 1 oil and gas producer, says the Jidong Nanpu oilfield is an exciting prospect. The 1.02 billion tons of oil equivalent in the new field will bolster the company's oil reserves by 55 percent and its gas reserves by nine percent, said the report.

Analysts say the discovery assuages the country's strategic position in relation to oil. If all 1.02 billion tons of oil equivalent in the new field prove to be recoverable, then that will cover about three years of national requirements in line with current consumption capacity.

China consumed 320 million tons of oil last year.

The discovery of the Jidong Nanpu oilfield is the most significant oil find in four decades in China, according to Shanghai Securities News. The aging Daqing oilfield in northeastern Heilongjiang province, for thirty years the backbone of the country's oil industry, saw annual output dip below 50 million tons in 2003, said the report.

CNPC has said the company will start to develop the Jidong Nanpu oilfield as soon as possible. The first-phase project, to be finished by 2012, will yield 10 million tons per year.

Output is expected to rise progressively to 25 million tons a year, making the oilfield China's third largest after Daqing and Shengli.

Longer term, the new discovery does not fundamentally change the country's strategic situation. China ranks in the top 15 on the list of countries with the largest proven oil reserves -- ahead of Qatar but behind the United States -- and the new discovery will not change the ranking.

For every 100 barrels of oil consumed in China, about 40 are imported.

The country's reserves-production ratio, which reflects the time oil reserves will last at the current rate of production, declined from about 15 years in the 1990s to 11 years in 2006.

China needs to find more oil to guarantee resources, said the report.

China currently has 2.04 billion tons of oil and 2.45 trillion cubic meters of gas in recoverable reserves.

Last year the country produced 184 million tons of crude oil, up 1.7 percent, and imported 139 million tons, up 17 percent.