China National Petroleum Corp(CNPC)'s southern Sichuan shale gas field-the biggest shale gas production base in the country-has produced more than 100 billion cubic meters of gas,Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday.

The southern Sichuan shale gas field is located in Luzhou and Yibin in Sichuan Province as well as neighboring Yunnan Province and Chongqing Municipality.It is one of the areas with the most abundant shale gas reserves in the country.

CNPC started the exploration in 2006 and has since developed a suite of core technologies on shale gas development through debottlenecking efforts,such as geological stability evaluation,geologic engineering for integrated 3D modeling and simulation,development optimization,optimal and fast drilling,and fine fracturing,according to the company.

"After nearly 20 years of exploration,we have gradually transformed difficult-to-recover resources into stable production,"said Liu Wei,an official with CNPC.

From January to August,the CNPC's southern Sichuan shale gas field has brought 237 new wells into operation,pushing daily output to 48 million cubic meters.By the end of the year,the field's annual output is projected to surpass 16 billion cubic meters,accounting for approximately 60 percent of China's annual shale gas production and 7 percent of the country's total natural gas output.

In recent years,CNPC has expanded exploration across three shale gas domains-medium-depth,deep,and new strata-continuously upgraded technological processes,and improved management efficiency.This has enabled the construction of a"trillion-cubic-meter reserve,10-billion-cubic-meter production"shale gas field in medium-deep strata,with a second 10-billion-cubic-meter production field under development in deep strata.

Wu Jianfa,director of CNPC Shale Gas Research Institute,said that,through collaborative research under innovation consortia,the company has developed core technologies adapted to the geological and engineering conditions of the Southern Sichuan shale gas field.By optimizing well placement,drilling,fracturing,and gas production processes,the company is able to mobilize more resources,shorten drilling cycles,increase single-well output,and fully unlock stratum potential-lifting the average recoverable gas volume of deep shale gas wells by nearly 20 percent,Xinhua reported.

Since the operation of China's first shale gas well-Well 201-the CNPC's southern Sichuan shale gas field has delivered over 1.5 trillion cubic meters of proven reserves,put more than 2,300 wells into operation,and achieved an annual production scale exceeding 15 billion cubic meters.It has established a development model with solid resource foundations,mature technical systems,and adaptive management models,emerging as a major area for China's natural gas reserve growth and a future production hub.