China's major shale gas field strengthens supply ahead of Spring Festival holiday

CHONGQING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Four new shale gas wells in the Fuling shale gas field in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality have been commissioned, reinforcing the energy supply ahead of the week-long Spring Festival holiday.

The four new wells add 180,000 cubic meters of daily gas supply to improve the gas field's total daily supply to nearly 20 million cubic meters, enough to meet the daily energy demand of about 40 million households, said its developer Sinopec, China's largest oil refiner.

Shale gas is mainly methane. It is considered a type of clean and new energy resource.

As China's first large-scale shale gas field to enter commercial development in 2014, Fuling has become a clean energy source for more than 70 cities along the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China.