Sinopec's Fuling Shale Gas Field Jan-July Output Up 161%

Sinopec’s Fuling shale gas field produced 3.054bn m³ of gas during the first seven months of the year, up 161% from the same period last year with sales of 2.932bn m³, which was also higher by 161%. CNPC mentioned these numbers on August 25 in a report on China’s shale gas development.

The report stated that Fuling shale gas field’s second phase is progressing well and is expected to be completed in 2017 taking the annual production capacity to 10bn m³. The first phase of Fuling shale gas field in Chongqing went into production last year. Earlier this year, Sinopec announced it is aiming to produce 10bn m³ of shale gas by 2020 from the field. It further stated that the target is to have production capacity of 15bn m³/yr by that year.

China is working on building a substantial shale gas infrastructure. Despite many hurdles, the industry has managed to achieve significant progress in last few years. It’s recoverable shale gas reserves last year jumped 109bn m³ to 130bn m³.

Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) said country’s shale gas output reached 4.47bn m³ in 2015, up almost 259% on year. However, last year’s production missed government’s target of 6.5bn m³.

Shardul Sharma