China’s Shale Gas Industry Is Finally Taking Off

China’s Shale Gas Industry Is Finally Taking Off

Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.Editor OilPrice.comApril 17, 2021, 8:00 AM·4 min readOops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.During the first two months of 2021, the Chinese oil and gas giant Sinopec managed to bring 28 new shale gas wells on stream in the country. The company also announced that the shale gas production from its major Fuling field jumped by 20% compared to last year. And despite the recent collapse in oil and gas prices, as well as the uncertainty brought by the Covid-19 pandemic, Sinopec remains optimistic on the future of shale gas. Its latest achievement was the completion of the first phase of a new shale field in Weirong, adding 1 billion cubic meters of shale capacity. This series of breakthroughs reveal a more global trend: a possible revolution in the Chinese shale gas sector. But in a country traditionally relying on conventional gas resources, how realistic is this “shale boom”? A “coal to shale gas” switch? The share of natural gas in China's total energy consumption reached a modest 8% in 2019. However, this figure is expected to climb as a result of China's strategy to move away from coal,