Shale Gas to Be Declared an Independent Mineral Resource

The Ministry of Land and Resources of China plans to declare shale gas as an independent mineral resource and put it under primary administration.

The ministry points out that various organic matter-rich shale is widely distributed in China, which has great potential for shale gas resource reserves.  The Chinese government always attaches importance to the development of shale gas.  The Ministry of Land and Resources made a survey of the domestic shale gas resource in recent years and completed preliminary valuation on total 1.5 million square-kilometer shale-rich areas in Sichuan, Chongqing, Hubei, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, and Xinjiang.  The extractable shale gas in these areas is about 31 trillion cubic meters.

The ministry proposes to further improve the administration’s scheme on shale gas resources and related departments to boost exploration and development of shale gas as well as accelerate the work related to the declaration of shale gas as independent mineral resource.

Source: Yicai