On June 16, Chongqing signed investment agreements worth 4 billion yuan with five companies from China, US and Singapore to develop four key shale gas projects.

The projects focus on equipment manufacturing, exploitation and extraction of shale gas, and are expected to reach an output of 10 billion yuan annually, and to play a key role in Chongqing’s plan to build a national shale gas industrial base in Liangjiang new area and a “Saudi Arabia” in inland China.

Liangjiang new area in Chongqing previously reached an agreement with US Forbes Energy Group regarding cooperation in extraction technology, manufacture of key equipment, financing and marketing of shale gas.

China – which boasts the world’s second largest reserves of shale gas - aims to make use of the unconventional clean energy on a large scale so as to adjust the national energy mix. Chongqing has already taken the lead in research, evaluation, and formulation of standards for key exploitation processes, and it has the third largest area of extractable shale gas in the country.