The PetroChina ethane recovery project at the Tarim Oilfield in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region started operations on Aug 16, as the country's largest single ethane recovery project.

The project of an investment of over 1.6 billion yuan (around $246 million) is designed to produce 1.2 million metric tons of petroleum and about 762,000 tons of ethane each year.

Southern Xinjiang has benefited from over 42 billion cubic meters of natural gas from the Tarim Oilfields.