OREANDA-NEWS. July 31, 2014. The Chinese government has verified shale gas reserves of Sinopec Corp's Fuling field in the country’s southern province of Chongqing, signalling the official launch of the commercial development of China's first large shale gas field.

The Ministry of Land and Resources verified proven reserves of nearly 107 billion cubic metres (bcm) in the Fuling shale gas field in Chongqing municipality, the company said on Thursday, as reported by Reuters.

As of June 30, daily output in 29 test wells in Fuling totalled 3.2 million cubic metres. Accumulated shale gas output from those wells reached 611 million cubic metres, Sinopec said. The planned output could help China beat its target of 6.5 bcm/y as of 2015.

Despite being considered to have the world’s largest shale gas reserves twice those of the U.S., China’s target output represents just a portion of the State’s 266 bcm/y reported in 2012, Bloomberg notes.