Guangming Daily, Beijing, March 16 (Xinhua) Reporter Zhang Yi learned from PetroChina on the 16th that the annual production capacity of my country's largest coal and gas field, PetroChina Daji Gas Field, exceeded 4 billion cubic meters, and its output accounted for more than three-quarters of the country's total coal and gas production. It has become an important replacement resource for the growth of my country's natural gas production.
Coal gas is an unconventional natural gas resource that is adsorbed or free in deep underground coal seams. It is usually buried at a depth of more than 1,500 meters and has broad prospects for exploration and development. Research results from PetroChina’s Key Laboratory of Coal and Rock Gas show that my country’s coal and rock gas geological resources can reach 50 trillion cubic meters, of which the resources in the Ordos Basin exceed 25 trillion cubic meters. The country's first coal and rock gas demonstration area project, Daji Gas Field, is located in the southwest of Shanxi Province on the eastern edge of the Ordos Basin. Since the beginning of this year, PetroChina Coalbed Methane Company has drilled 16 new wells and built a new production capacity of 250 million cubic meters, pushing the daily gas production of the gas field to exceed 11 million cubic meters, a year-on-year increase of 32%.
Compared with conventional natural gas, coal and rock gas has deep burial depths, complex geological conditions, and high mining technical thresholds. PetroChina Coalbed Methane Company continues to deepen theoretical innovation in coal gas exploration and development, build a coal gas enrichment theoretical system, and accurately reveal the "adsorption-free" two-phase occurrence law of gas in deep coal formations. Adhere to using technological innovation as the engine, make every effort to promote the speed and efficiency of coal and rock gas development, and successfully develop a number of key core technologies to strongly support the large-scale and efficient development of coal and rock gas. In 2019, the first coal gas well, Well Daji 3-7, received industrial gas flow. In December 2021, the daily output of Jishen Well 6-7 exceeded 100,000 cubic meters, becoming my country's first "breakthrough well" for efficient coal and rock gas development. From 2023 to 2025, it took only three years for the Daji Gas Field to achieve a step-by-step rapid growth in coal and rock gas production, continuing to lead the development of my country's coal and rock gas industry. At present, the second phase of the Daji Gas Field production capacity construction project is being steadily advanced. After the project is completed, it will add an annual production capacity of 1.5 billion cubic meters.
"Guangming Daily" (page 10, March 17, 2026)
