Sinopec certifies reserves of 1.3 billion barrels at East China Shale Oil Plays

Sinopec Corp announced on Monday that the Chinese government had certified new geological resources of about 180 million tons or 1.3 billion barrels at two of their shale-oil plays.

Sinopec announced that the new reserves had been tapped in the Xinxing Field in the Jiyang trough in the Bohai Bay Basin and in the Qintong Field in the Subei Basin.

The shale formations of Xinxing are buried between 2,900 and 4,000 metres beneath the surface, while those in Qintong are buried 3,430 to 4,560 meters deep.

Sinopec said that both fields have demonstrated high-volume production from single wells with a long-term stable output.

Sinopec plans to produce more than 100 millions tons (730million barrels) per year in the period 2026-2030, and to pump 2,000,000 tons or 40,000 barrels of shale crude oil each day by 2030.

The state oil giant produced 705,000 tonnes, or 5,15 million barrels, of shale crude oil last year.

China's oil companies have increased their efforts to extract shale deposits that are difficult to access to compensate for the rapidly depleting older conventional oilfields.

Shale oil is one of the most difficult and expensive types of oil to produce and explore, even though it has a huge amount of resources. It only accounts for 1% of China’s total crude production.

(source: Reuters)