Sinopec Leads Shale Research Center

State energy group Sinopec will head up a new national shale oil research and development centre that has been approved by the National Energy Administration, official paper China Energy News reported on Monday.

China may hold 10-20 billion tonnes of shale oil resource, the paper said, citing preliminary industry estimates.

Sinopec has since 2011 been tapping shale oil resource in formations in central China's Qinyang and east China's Jiyang basins for signs of oil flows, it said.

Oil and gas development has been ongoing for decades in the two continental basis, with shale rock buried deeper below the conventional producing zones.

Chinese oil firms have also since the 1960s been tapping oil signs in shale rocks in other continental basins such as Songliao in the northeast, Turpan-Hami in the northwest and Bohai Bay area in northern China.

The state group's listed arm Sinopec Corp is leading China's shale gas development. It is building the country's first large commercial shale gas project at Fuling in the southwest, aiming for a capacity of 5 billion cubic metres of gas a year by end-2015 and 10 bcm in 2017.

Reporting by Chen Aizhu