OREANDA-NEWS. April 24, 2014. There is possibility that China could yield 50 billion cubic meters of shale gas annually in five years, an expert at 12th Coaltrans China said Thursday, reports Xinhua news agency.

The expert also said that China could produce 200 billion cubic meters of shale gas and coalbed methane (CBM) a year in 10 years, Xinhua added.

In addition, the prospect of natural gas development in China is also promising and the country plans to take 10 years to develop 300 billion cubic meters of natural gas to replace 320 million metric tons (tonnes) of coal, said the expert.

China aims to produce 6.5 billion cubic meters of shale gas by 2015, according to the nation’s Development Plan for Shale Gas, launched in 2013.

Last month, China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation or Sinopec announced it is planning to develop the Fuling shale gas field into China’s first shale gas field. The field is projected to have an annual production capacity of 10 billion cubic meters by 2017.

The Fuling shale gas field in Chongqing has reserves of 2.1 trillion cubic meters and Sinopec expects the annual capacity of Fuling shale gas field to reach 1.8 billion cubic meters by the end of 2014 and 5 billion cubic meters by 2015, a ten-fold increase than previously planned.