China has made progress in developing shale gas equipment with core technologies, industry insiders said. After three years of research and international cooperation, Northern Heavy Industries Group has developed multiple core technologies for fracking equipment, said Chairman Geng Hongchen. This has provided strong equipment support for the commercial exploration of shale gas. China has progressed in shale gas equipment development, said Li Zhibo, Director of the Design Research Institute of the Shenyang-based Northern Heavy Industries. The company will develop high-end core parts for fracking equipment, according to 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. China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) now has nine wells running at its shale gas fields in Sichuan province, with accumulated production of more than 80 million cu m. More than 110 other wells will be put into operation by the end of the second quarter of next year. 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, the Shanghai Daily reports.

Sinopec said that it had achieved “significant breakthroughs” in the exploration and development of the Fuling shale gas block in Chongqing. The field has reserves of 2.1 trillion cu m. Chairman Fu Chengyu said Sinopec’s two major tasks this year will be business restructuring and upstream shale gas exploration. The company expects that the annual capacity of the Fuling field will reach 1.8 billion cu m by the end of 2014 and 5 billion cu m by 2015. Under the 12th Five Year Plan (2011-15) for the shale gas industry, China aims to achieve total output of 6.5 billion cu m of shale gas by 2015, which means that Sinopec might contribute 77% of the target output.