PetroChina has proven another 158 million metric tons, or about 1.15 billion barrels, of shale oil reserve in a pilot project in northeast China, Chinese state media reported on Friday.

The Daqing Gulong project, located in northeast China’s Heilongjiang province and covering an area of 2,778 square kilometers, is currently pumping 3,500 tons, or about 25,550 barrels a day, state television said.

The project, which began test production in 2022, is one of a handful of pilot shale oil projects in the country as national oil companies step up drilling of harder-to-develop hydrocarbon resources to arrest declines in domestic oil production.

The growing proven reserve at Gulong is set to boost PetroChina’s shale oil output to more than 6.8 million tons this year (136,000 barrels per day), state TV added, without giving a comparison.

PetroChina produced about 5 million tons of shale oil last year, mostly from Qingcheng field in northern Ordos basin and Jimsar project in northwest Junggar basin, according to Chen Lin, Beijing-based analyst with Rystad Energy.
Source: Reuters