China will try its utmost to keep its annual oil imports below 60 percent of its total oil consumption by 2020, a researcher with the country's top oil company said yesterday.

"I can assure you that China's oil and gas production is still huge because of the reserves potential. Currently China's production is rising to its peak season, which may last 30 years," Zhao Wenzhi, director of the Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development affiliated to China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), said yesterday.

CNPC is China's top oil and gas producer.