China's Shale Gas Reserves Rise Sharply
China’s technically recoverable shale gas reserves increased by 62% year on year to reach 916.8bn m3 by end-2017, its natural resources ministry said July 10. As of April 2018, reserves exceeded 1 trillion m3.
The ministry said that two shale gas fields found last year were estimated to have reserves of more than 100bn m3 each. Since 2014 a total of four shale gas fields have been discovered in the Sichuan basin: Fuling, Weiyuan, Changning and Weirong.
Fuling field, operated by Sinopec is the most prominent one as it produced 6bn m3 of shale gas, up 20% year on year.
China’s coalbed methane (CBM) reserves, in contrast, declined: at end-2017, China’s CBM reserves had fallen to 10.5bn m3 from 127.4bn m3 a year ago, the ministry said.