Prospects and challenges of shale gas development in China

The paper firstly analyzes the current status of worldwide shale gas development. The status of North America shale gas development and main characteristics of the Marcellus and Haynesville shale gas areas are analyzed in detail. It is believed that continuous technological innovation, efficient management models, and diversified industry support policies have been the main driving forces for the rapid development of shale gas in the United States, which is a valuable experience for the development of shale gas in China. Secondly, the paper systematically reviewed the exploration and development of shale gas in China over the past 20 years. It is believed that China shale gas had made significant achievements with four stages development: the evaluation stage, the in-situ development experiments stage, the demonstration area construction stage and the large-scale development of marine shale gas stage. China has developed several shale gas fields including Southern Sichuan and Fuling. Also, the marine shale gas has achieved large-scale and cost-effective development with the production reaching 23.8 billion cubic meters in 2022, and has become an important part of China natural gas supply. Meanwhile, the deep shale gas development is steadily advancing, the new formation and new area of shale gas exploration has made significant breakthroughs. Lastly, based on the analysis of the geological characteristics of shale gas in China, the paper proposed that China’s annual shale gas production could reach 50 billion to 80 billion cubic meters per annum in the near future. However, it is necessary to continue work on four issues: improving the shale gas three-dimensional development technology, optimizing shale gas geophysical evaluation technology, upgrading shale gas drilling and fracturing technology, and exploring new shale gas formations and areas.