Sinopec’s Jiyang shale oil base in Shandong province has ramped up output in recent months, raising Chinese shale production and domestic resources and output as the world’s biggest crude importer looks to boost its energy security.
Cumulative oil production at Jiyang has topped 2 million tons, Chinese media reported on Monday.
The Jiyang base, which covers about 7,300 square kilometers, or 2,820 square miles, in the Shandong province in east China, increased shale oil output by 15% in the first four months of 2026 compared to the same period last year, thanks to 10 new wells placed into operation, according to Sinopec.
The Chinese state oil giant formally known as China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation has also recently opened a major ultra-deep shale gas find after obtaining official government approval for proven geological reserves of 235.687 billion cubic meters in the Ziyang Dongfeng field in the Sichuan province.
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Sinopec earlier this month announced that the Ministry of Natural Resources of China approved its reserves validation at the shale gas field, marking the creation of China’s first ultra-deep, 100-billion-cubic-meter-level shale gas field.
“After over a decade of persistent effort, we have taken Cambrian shale gas from zero to a hundred-billion-cubic-meter-scale reserve base,” commented Liu Wei, director of Sinopec Southwest Petroleum Bureau and representative of Sinopec Southwest Oil & Gas Company.
“This validates the formation’s vast potential and gives us a replicable technical pathway to expand China’s shale gas development frontier.”
Sinopec will now move to the next state of driving “high-quality exploration and production, accelerate capacity growth at Ziyang Dongfeng, and contribute to secure national energy security,” the executive added.
In recent years, Sinopec has been actively exploring and certifying growing volumes of shale oil and gas reserves in China’s onshore basins, despite technically and geologically challenging terrains and ultra-deep formations.
Despite the challenges, shale exploration is an important part of China’s push to boost its domestic oil and gas production in a bid to reduce its significant exposure to imported hydrocarbons.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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