DM Monitoring
URUMQI: A massive gas reservoir with expected reserves of over 100 billion cubic meters was found in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, according to PetroChina’s local branch.
A preliminary probe indicates the reservoir, covering an area of 156 million square meters beneath the middle of the southern rim of the Junggar Basin, contains 109 billion cubic meters of gas, said Huo Jin, general manager of PetroChina’s Xinjiang branch.
It is expected to be capable of producing 610,000 cubic meters of natural gas and 106.3 cubic meters of crude oil per day, according to Huo.
“The discovery marks a major breakthrough in gas exploration in the southern rim of the Junggar Basin, which will further guarantee the gas supply of our company and contribute to the stability and prosperity of the region,” he said.
Shale driver: And domestic gas output growth looks broadly resilient. Ongoing gas supply security concerns mean output from oilfields with a high proportion of associated gas will be prioritised by China’s majors. Domestic gas production growth is being driven largely by unconventional gas output, which was already starting to surpass expectations by the end of last year. China produced around 15.45bn m³ of shale gas in 2019, up from 10.8bn m³ in 2018 and 9bn m³ in 2017.
Consultancy Wood Mackenzie had not expected China’s shale gas output to reach an annualised rate of 15bn m³ until 2020. On the other hand, the IEA said last year that data from CNPC/PetroChina and Sinopec indicated their combined output would hit 19bn m³ by 2020, although it also under-forecast 2019 at just shy of 15bn m³.
