China's 2014 Shale Gas Output at 1.3 Bcm

Shale gas production in China in 2014 stood at 1.3 billion cubic meters (bcm), up almost five time on year, Ministry of Land and Resources announced Monday.

Production of coal bed methane (CBM), according to the ministry was recorded at 3.6 bcm, up 23.3 percent year-on-year.

The ministry earlier said that China’s shale gas output is likely to hit 6.5 bcm this year. Last year, Sinopec’s Fuling field was verified by Chinese government as country’s largest shale gas play. The Ministry of Land and Resources verified proven reserves of nearly 107 billion cubic metres (bcm) in the Fuling shale gas field. In October, cumulative output from Fuling shale gas project crossed one billion cubic meters.  

However, China cut its 2020 shale gas production targets by more than half to 30 billion cubic metres, reflecting the difficult geology of its shale basins, higher drilling costs, water scarcity and the limited success domestic operators have had so far with shale blocks allocated in the two rounds since 2011.

Country’s overall natural gas output last year was 132.9 bcm, higher by 10.7 percent year-on-year, the Ministry said in the same report. Conventional natural gas production was 128 bcm, up 9.8 percent on year.

State-owned PetroChina's gas production last year rose 8.2 percent to 95.2 bcm while Sinopec's gas output rose 7.2 percent to 20 bcm. China National Offshore Oil Corp. produced 11.8 Bcm of gas last year, up 23.6% from 2013, the Ministry said.