China Produced 4.47 bcm of Shale Gas in 2015

China’s recoverable shale gas reserves last year jumped 109 billion cubic meters (bcm) to 130 bcm.

Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) on Wednesday said country’s shale gas output reached 4.47 bcm, up almost 259 percent on year. However, last year’s production missed government’s target of 6.5 bcm.

Despite many hurdles, Chinese shale gas industry has made significant progress in recent years. Last year Sinopec’s Fuling shale gas project in Sichuan basin went into commercial production.

Although Shell recently quit the Chinese shale gas space, BP and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), last month, signed a production sharing contract (PSC) for shale gas exploration, development and production in the Neijiang-Dazu block in the Sichuan basin.

In addition to shale gas China’s other major unconventional hydrocarbon is coal bed methane (CBM). According to the MLR, in 2015 CBM production was 4.4 bcm, up almost 25 percent on year. The country added 2.63 bcm of CBM reserves, of which 1.32 bcm are recoverable. Total recoverable coal-bed methane reserves were 306 bcm.

China’s total recoverable conventional natural gas reserves were 5.194 trillion cubic meters. Output, excluding unconventional sources such as shale gas and CBM, declined 0.4 percent to 124.5 bcm.