Kuqa County

The Kuqa County [The official spelling is "Kuqa" according to "Zhōngguó dìmínglù" 中国地名录 (Beijing, "Zhōngguó dìtú chūbǎnshè" 中国地图出版社 1997); ISBN 7-5031-1718-4; p. 306.] ( _zh. 库车县, Kùchē Xian; _ug. كۇچار ناھىيىسى|Kuchar Nahiyisi|Kuqar Nah̡iyisi) is a county in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and is under the administration of the Aksu Prefecture. It contains an area of 15,200 km². According the 2002 census, it has a population of 450,000. It was once the home of an ancient Buddhist Kingdom of Kucha.

Climate

The Kuqa County has a temperate continental climate, with an average annual temperature of 11.4 °C. The average annual rainfall is 64.5 mm and the frost-free period lasts for 266 days on average.

Economy

The Kuqa County contains soil-rich geothermal resources. It is an important base especially for the Tarim Oil and Gas Development projects. The natural gas reserves comprises two trillion cubic meters - which accounts for more than 90% of all proven reserves in the Tarim Basin. There are also oil reserves of 700 million tons, accounting for more than 70% of proven reserves. The well known oil and gas fields are the Yakerla (雅克拉), Tahe (塔河), Donghetang (东河塘), Yaha (牙哈), Yiqikelike (伊奇克里克) and Dalaoba (大涝坝). There are also proven coal reserves of 1.56 billion tons and Rock salt reserves of 36 million tons.

The County comprises an area of 790,000 square kilometres of arable land of which approximately 3,500,000 square kilometres of land is unable to be exploited.

Footnotes