URUMQI - China's oil and gas producer PetroChina Saturday started to extract natural gas to fill the Hutubi natural gas storage tank in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, which is the largest of its kind in China.

The gas storage in Hutubi can help ensure the country's natural gas supply during the winter, said Hu Xiaobo, manager of the gas storage division of the Xinjiang branch of PetroChina.

With a designed gas storage capacity of 10.7 billion cubic meters, the Hutubi gas storage facility connects to China's second west-to-east natural gas pipeline and plays a vital role in the seasonal peak regulation of gas reserves in northern Xinjiang.

Hu said PetroChina would extract 580 million cubic meters more gas than last year to store in Hutubi this year, making it a record high to ensure the gas demand in winter and next spring.

Since it officially started operating in June 2013, 18.48 billion cubic meters of gas have been injected into the gas tank.