China May Hold Shale Gas Auctions "Within Months"

China will hold its second auction for shale-gas exploration areas "within months", Dow Jones reported quoting an official at the Ministry of Land and Resources.

The process would be open for any domestic company, private or state-owned. The country is planning to carry out an auction of 20 shale-gas blocks in 10 regions.

China recently set a target to produce 6.5 billion cubic meters a year of shale gas by 2015 and hopes to produce between 60 billion and 100 billion cubic meters a year by 2020.

As per Chinese government estimated, the country has an estimated 25.08 trillion cubic meters of potentially recoverable shale gas reserves.