A technician monitors a control room at a drilling platform in a shale gas field in Weiyuan county, Sichuan province. [Photo by Huang Zhiling/chinadaily.com.cn]

Shale gas reserves exceeding 163 billion cubic meters have been discovered in Southwest China's Sichuan province.

"They have been proven in two blocks of Weiyuan county and one block of Gongxian county," said Zhou Zeshan, an information officer with PetroChina Southwest Oil and Gasfield Co in Chengdu, Sichuan.

According to Wang Lansheng, a chief geologist in charge of shale gas development in the company, the proven shale gas reserves are tantamount to those of 130 million tons of crude oil because the quantity of heat produced with the burning of 1,255 cubic meters of shale gas is the indentical to the burning of 1 ton of crude oil.

Shale gas blocks in the Sichuan Basin are believed to be one of the most commercial development values in China. Sichuan, whose speed of shale gas development is much higher than in other parts of the country, is expected to produce 2 billion cubic meters of shale gas this year.

"By the year 2020, Sichuan will produce between 5 billion and 8 billion cubic meters of shale gas a year. And one-third of the natural gas output will come from shale gas," Wang said.