China Allots Shale Blocks to 16 Companies

China’s Ministry of Land and Resources has allotted exploration rights for 19 shale gas blocks, under the second auction round held last year, to 16 companies. Top three bidders for each block were announced in early December. These sixteen Chinese firms have pledged to invest 12.8 billion yuan ($2 billion) in shale gas prospection over the next three years, the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) said.

The ministry has earlier said that it received 152 bids for 19 shale gas blocks it offered in the second round of shale gas auctions at the end of October. Eighty-three state-owned and private companies from eight provinces and municipalities submitted bids for the blocks.

China offered 20 shale gas blocks in a second tender, with a total area of 20,002 square kilometres in 8 provinces: Chongqing, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Anhui, and Henan.

 Sixteen companies including six centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOE), eight local enterprises, and two private companies won the bid for a total of nineteen blocks. Power and coal enterprises obtained the exploration rights to eight blocks.