SHIJIAZHUANG -- China is expected to become the world's third-largest natural gas producer in 2035, an official with the International Gas Union said Thursday.

Torstein Indreb, secretary general of IGU, made the remarks at the 2013 China International Pipeline Exhibition and Conference held in the city of Langfang in North China's Hebei province.

Spurred by the country's huge demand, China will see a sharp increase in natural gas production and rank third place by 2035, following Russia and the United States, he said.

Statistics show China's production volume of natural gas surged 6.7 percent year on year to 106.7 billion cubic meters last year. The total length of natural gas pipelines exceeded 55,000 kilometers across the country.

China plans to earmark 460 billion yuan ($75 billion) to build 65,000 kilometers of petroleum pipelines from 2011 to 2015, including 41,000 kilometers of natural gas pipelines.