PetroChina Co Ltd has formed a joint venture with the Chinese mainland's State Forestry Administration (SFA) under which both parties will spend 220 million yuan to plant oil-rich trees in seven provinces for bio-diesel production, said an SFA official.

Qian Nengzhi, director of the SFA's energy office of forestry biomass, said each party will contribute to the cost of planting oil-rich trees such as jatropha curcas and yellowhorn in the provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan, Hunan, Anhui, Hebei and Shaanxi, as well as the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

(US$1 = 7.62 yuan)