TAIYUAN, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Qinshui coalbed methane field in north China's Shanxi Province, the largest of its kind in the country, produced 6 million cubic meters of gas on Tuesday, hitting a fresh daily high.
Located in the southeast of Shanxi, the PetroChina Huabei Oilfield's Qinshui coalbed methane field spans more than 3,000 square km, with an estimated reserve of 600 billion cubic meters of coalbed methane.
In 2006, the Huabei Oilfield acquired the right to mine coalbed methane in Shanxi's Qinshui Basin, and subsequently built the first coalbed methane field in China, with an annual surface extraction capacity of more than 2 billion cubic meters.
The field's cumulative output of marketable gas extracted so far exceeds 10 billion cubic meters.
In the next three years, the field's annual gas output is expected to reach 3 billion cubic meters, which will play an important role in the supply and regulation of natural gas during winter in northern China. ■
