OREANDA-NEWS. March 30, 2011. PetroChina (PTR.NYSE; 601857.SH; 085 7.HK) will attach great importance to the development of natural gas b usiness during the period from 2011 to 2015, Zhou Mingchun, the compan y's chief financial officer (CFO), at a press conference after the rel ease of its annual report.

The company will, in particular, focus on the development of non -conventional natural gas, such as coal bed methane (CBM) and shale ga s, he added.

Currently, PetroChina's cooperation with Shell in non-convention al gas business is going forward smoothly, he said.

PetroChina is looking forward to engage in cooperation with glob al oil company in non-conventional gas exploration in future, Zhou said.

PetroChina's newly discovered CBM reserve exceeded 100 billion c ubic meters in 2010. Its CBM output came to 280 million cubic meters, said Xu Jianmei, deputy chief economist of the company's planning and programming division.

The company plans to have an annual CMB output of 600 million cu bic meters in 2011 and 4 billion cubic meters by 2015.