China is set to miss its 2020 shale gas output target as it battles to reduce the costs of producing shale resources trapped in reservoirs more than 3500 metres underground.
By 2020, China’s shale gas production is expected to reach 17 billion cubic metres, up from last year’s 11 Bcm.
However, that total is well below the government's 30 Bcm target set for the end of the 13th five-year period running from 2016 to the end of 2020, acknowledged Guo Wei, a Resources Strategy Research Centre official at the Ministry of Natural Resources.
