China’s Sinopec has made two significant discoveries of shale gas in central-southwestern China containing over 100 billion cubic meters, the company has said, as quoted by the South China Morning Post.
Sinopec called the discoveries proof that the deposit, called Hongxing, had strong resource potential and would contribute to national energy security.
The company added that the geology at the sites was challenging, with the reserves at depths between 3,300 and 5,500 meters. Despite the challenges, Sinopec’s test well at one of the sites had achieved daily rates of over 300,000 cubic meters, up from 89,000 cubic meters initially.
The news follows an announcement by Sinopec from late July, when the company said it had certified 147 million barrels in oil reserves at another shale deposit, in southwestern China. The Fuxing shale oil and gas field is in the Sichuan basin, and was the first successful predominantly oil play discovered in Sichuan, where companies have been mostly finding natural gas.
Earlier in the year, Sinopec announced the certification of another 1.3 billion barrels in reserves at two fields in eastern China. As with the new gas discovery, those reserves were at considerable depths.
China has substantial shale resources, especially in natural gas, but extracting them is a challenge, unlike in the United States, due to the complex geology of the local shale formations.
Even so, shale oil and gas exploration is an important part of China’s push to boost its reliance on domestic oil and gas production in a bid to reduce its significant exposure to foreign hydrocarbon resources.
At the start of the year, China’s National Energy Administration said the country aimed to achieve crude oil production of over 200 million tons for the full 2025, while at the same time maintaining a stable pace of expansion in natural gas production.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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