China Verifies Sinopec's Fuling Shale Gas Field As Country's Largest

Sinopec’s Fuling field has been verified by Chinese government as country’s largest shale gas play, news agency Reuters reported the company as saying Thursday.

This development paves way for official launch of commercial development of the field.

China’s Ministry of Land and Resources verified proven reserves of nearly 107 billion cubic metres (bcm) in the Fuling shale gas field in Chongqing municipality, Reuters said.

In March, Sinopec announced that Fuling field is projected to have an annual production capacity of 10 billion cubic meters by 2017.

The Fuling shale gas field has reserves of 2.1 trillion cubic meters and Sinopec expects the annual capacity of Fuling shale gas field to reach 1.8 billion cubic meters by the end of 2014 and 5 billion cubic meters by 2015, a ten-fold increase than previously planned.

China aims to produce 6.5 billion cubic meters of shale gas by 2015, according to the nation’s Development Plan for Shale Gas, launched in 2013.