China announces large shale oil reserves discovery

The China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) announced the discovery of more than 140 million tons of proven shale oil reserve in east China's Shandong Province, BelTA informs.

This is the first shale oilfield with proven reserves exceeding 100 million tons to be certified by the Ministry of Natural Resources, and a major breakthrough in oil and gas exploration in the Jiyang shale oil national demonstration zone relating to the Shengli oil field in the above province.

To date, the estimated shale oil resources have reached 10.5 billion tons in the demonstration zone Jiyang, owned by the Shengli Oilfield in Shandong, with cumulative oil output surpassing 1 million tons. The Shengli Oilfield was discovered in 1961, and its development began in 1964.

China has established three national-level shale oil demonstration zones in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Northwestern China), Heilongjiang Province (Northeast China) and Shandong Province, respectively.