CHINA will invest 1.85 billion yuan (US$268 million) to develop a shale gas project in Chongqing with an annual production capacity of 2 billion cubic meters (bcm) in three to five years, according to a statement on a local county website.

    The country has laid out a shale gas development blueprint to pull out 30 bcm by 2020 and 80-100 bcm by 2030 and the southwest municipality of Chongqing has been identified as one of the top five production zones.

    Four subsidiaries of China’s second-largest energy company China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, along with local natural gas company Chongqing Xianglong, will build pipelines and other infrastructure for the project in Chongqing’s Wulong County, the Wulong local government said Tuesday.

    Wulong County has proven shale gas reserves that exceed 100 bcm, the local government said in a separate statement last month.

    China, the world’s top energy user and third-largest gas consumer, aims to boost the consumption of clean energy by lifting its natural gas usage to 10 percent of primary energy needs by 2020 from less than 6 percent currently, the National Energy Administration has said.

    (SD-Agencies)