China begins large-scale methane resources exploitation

A 100-million-cubic-meter coalbed methane exploitation project has been completed in north China’s Shanxi Province, marking the country has finally began to make use of the gas on an unprecedented scale. Shanxi Province boasts an abundance of coal resources. It is also China’s largest reserve base of coalbed methane. The estimated methane deposit is about one trillion cubic meters, or one third of the country’s total.

China is the third largest coalbed methane reserve country in the world, only next to Russia and Canada. The latest evaluation shows that China has 31.46 trillion cubic meters coalbed methane lying above a 2,000-meter depth, 60 percent of which is suitable for exploitation.

peopledaily