URUMQI - China's Kela-2 Gas Field, the major gas producer for the country's west-east gas pipeline, has posted a total output exceeding 60 billion cubic meters of natural gas as of Thursday since it began operation in 2004.

The amount was equivalent to 63.6 percent of the country's total gas output last year, the PetroChina Tarim Oilfield Company said Thursday.

The field, located in the Tarim Basin of the country's northwest Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, currently has a top daily production of 7 million cubic meters of gas for a single well, it said.

So far this year, it has transported 4.66 billion cubic meters of gas  through the pipeline to more than 80 cities along the pipeline and benefit more than 300 million residents, it said. The pipeline stretches from Xinjiang to the energy-hungry Yangtze River Delta.

The field was discovered in September 1998 and the proven gas reserve stands at 284 billion cubic meters.

The field was put into production in December 2004 with a designed annual production of 10.7 billion cubic meters, according to the website of China National Petroleum Corporation.