Sinopec Corp announced that the Chinese government has certified approximately 180 million metric tons, equivalent to about 1.3 billion barrels, of new geological reserves at two of its shale oil plays. These reserves are located at the Xinxing field in the Jiyang trough of the Bohai Bay basin and the Qintong field in the Subei basin.

The shale formations at the Xinxing field are at depths ranging from 2,900 to 4,000 meters, while those at the Qintong field are found between 3,430 and 4,560 meters below the surface. Both fields have demonstrated high single-well production with long, stable output, according to Sinopec.

Sinopec plans to pump two million tons, or 40,000 barrels per day (bbl/d), of shale oil by 2030. Thus, it aims to prove more than 100 million tons (730 million tons) of new reserves per year during the 2026-2030 period.

Notably, Sinopec produced 705,000 tons, or 5.15 million barrels, of shale oil last year.

This push for increased shale oil production is part of the country’s strategy to boost domestic energy security. China’s national oil companies are making greater efforts to tap hard-to-extract shale deposits to help compensate for older, fast-depleting conventional oilfields.

Meanwhile, shale oil remains among the geologically most challenging and costly types of oil to explore and produce, with output making up only 1% of China’s total crude oil production, according to Reuters.