Platts: China invested $222 mil in domestic shale gas sector in 2011: ministry report

China invested a total of Yuan 1.4 billion ($222 million) in the domestic shale gas sector last year, a Ministry of Land and Resources official was quoted as saying in a report on its website Saturday.

The government spent nearly Yuan 100 million on shale gas last year, while oil and gas companies pumped in Yuan 1.3 billion, Vice-Minister Wang Min said in an interview with China Land and Resources News, issued daily by the ministry.

"At present China's investment in shale gas exploration and development is very small as a proportion of total oil and gas exploration and development, which was over Yuan 60 billion last year. Further measures and investment are needed [for shale gas]," he said.

China needs to significantly accelerate evaluation and exploration work to get more information and accurately assess reserves, Wang said. More trial projects and environmental impact assessments as well as incentives were needed to encourage more investment, he added. 

The country's shale resource potential, excluding the Qinghai and Tibet areas, could reach 25 trillion cubic meters (883 Tcf), the report said. This is almost as much as its conventional gas resources and close to US' shale gas resources of 24 Tcm, it added. MORE