The Ministry of Land and Resources said on Monday that while China's energy resources are vast, much of this potential is hard to exploit right now.

According to the ministry, China has 88.5 billion tonnes of oil to be explored and about 77 trillion tonnes of gas reserves. Given this, China plans to use more gas in the future to optimize its energy structure and protect the environment.

The ministry added that China's gas exploration is 14 percent of the total reserves, compared to oil's 30 percent. So there is greater potential in gas exploration. But the current data also show that more than 80 percent of the country's oil and gas resources are hard to exploit at present.