China Prepares for Thiird Shale Auction Round

China's Ministry of Land and Resources has begun preparations for a third round of bidding for shale gas exploration, according to local media reports.

Second round of bidding was completed last year. The ministry has so far issued 54 licenses covering an area of 170,000 square kilometers, chiefly around Sichuan and neighboring areas, according to WantChina Times.

Some 80% of China's shale gas resources are controlled by four petrochemical giants led by CNPC and Sinopec, who have so far mostly conducted only test exploration on a small scale.

The government in its 2011-2015 shale gas development plan aimed to turn out more than 60 billion cubic meters of shale gas by 2020, but the goal was later cut by half to 30 billion cubic meters. The ministry said in September that it may increase the production target from the revised 30 billion cubic meters if smoother progress is achieved, reported WantChina Times.