Sinopec Corp 0386.HK600028.SS said on Thursday a new shale gas field in southwestern China holds nearly 146 billion cubic meters (bcm) of proven reserves that had been recently certified by the country’s ministry of natural resources.

The Qijiang shales, part of the gas-rich Sichuan basin, are buried mostly at 3,500 meters below ground level and are considered one of the more technologically challenging rock formations to explore and develop, Sinopec said in a statement.

It gave no further details, such as a timeline to develop the project or any estimate of peak output.

Under President Xi Jinping’s call to boost domestic energy supply, China’s national energy champions are accelerating the development of more costly, geologically challenging oil and gas resources.

Technologies like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing are widely applied to produce gas from shale and other tight rock formations.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by David Holmes)