Sinopec's Fuling Shale Gas Project First Phase Goes into Commercial Production

First phase of Sinopec’s Fuling shale gas project in Sichuan basin has gone into commercial production.

The state owned firm on Tuesday said that it plans to start the second phase at the same time with a production capacity of 5 billion cubic meters, China Daily reported.

"The target will be achieved by reaching production capacity of 10 billion cm of shale gas resources in two phases by 2017, and this will accelerate the progress of shale gas exploration to the large-scale commercialization phase," Sinopec said in a statement.

Jiao Fangzheng, vice president of Sinopec, said that China has rich shale gas resources and the achievement at Fuling will support the country's energy strategy to push for more exploration of shale gas in the future, China Daily added.

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.