China progressing in shale gas equipment development

SHENYANG - China has made progress in developing shale gas equipment with core technologies, industry insiders said on Monday.

After three years of research and international cooperation, Northern Heavy Industries Group Ltd has developed multiple core technologies for fracking equipment, said Geng Hongchen, chairman of the corporation.

This has provided strong equipment support for the commercialized exploration of shale gas, he said.

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State-owned Northern Heavy Industries is based in Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning province. Other domestic companies, including SANY Heavy Industry Co Ltd in Central China's Hunan province, are also developing fracking equipment.

China has progressed in shale gas equipment development, said Li Zhibo, head of the design research institute of Northern Heavy Industries.

The company will develop high-end core parts for fracking equipment with an eye on the industrial chains of shale gas development, said Li.

China has the largest recoverable reserves of shale gas in the world, and is targeting 6.5 billion cubic meters of production in 2015, a goal previously deemed difficult to meet due to slow commercial development practices.

China National Petroleum Corporation, the country's largest oil producer, now has nine shale gas wells running at its shale gas fields in Southwest China's Sichuan province, with accumulated production of over 80 million cubic meters. Another 110-plus wells will be put into operation by the end of the second quarter of 2015.

As the world's largest energy user, China is looking to reduce its reliance on imported oil, coal and gas by tapping its rich shale reserves, but complicated pipeline access procedures and geology make its extraction difficult and expensive.