China's first successfully developed deep coal-measure gas field has achieved cumulative production of over 3 billion cubic meters, its operator China National Petroleum Corp said.

The Daji gas field, one of the first coalbed methane (CBM) national demonstration projects located on the eastern edge of the Ordos Basin, saw its 2024 output surge to 1.69 billion cubic meters, marking a 79.2 percent year-on-year increase, it said.

Coal-measure gas is a new type of unconventional natural resource that is widely distributed across coal-rich basins such as the Ordos Basin, Sichuan Basin, and Junggar Basin, with estimated reserves exceeding 40 trillion cubic meters.

The achievement is a significant milestone in China's energy sector, especially in the context of its ongoing push for energy diversification and reducing reliance on conventional fossil fuels, said industry experts.

The successful development of the gas field can be viewed as a key step toward realizing the potential of deep CBM reserves, which is abundant but historically challenging to extract efficiently, said Wang Lining, director of the oil market department under the economics and technology research institute of China National Petroleum Corp.

"The 79.2 percent year-on-year increase in production suggests that technological advancements and improved operational efficiency are driving the growth of CBM output in China," he said.

"This could also reflect stronger domestic demand for cleaner, natural gas-based energy sources, as part of the country's efforts to reduce carbon emissions."

In recent years, China's deep CBM production has seen rapid growth, reaching 2.5 billion cubic meters in just three years, highlighting the increase in natural gas production.

As a major coal-producing country, China boasts abundant and widely distributed CBM resources with significant exploration and development potential. However, due to unclear reservoir formation mechanisms and high extraction difficulty, CBM has long been considered a challenging area for exploration and development.

In recent years, domestic energy companies including CNPC have focused on deep CBM exploration and development, persistently tackling key challenges and achieving efficient development through technological breakthroughs.

By the end of 2024, the national CBM reserves had increased significantly, with approximately 320 billion cubic meters of new reserves added over three consecutive years, of which about 77 percent was from deep CBM, said Zhou Lihong, executive director of PetroChina Coalbed Methane Co Ltd, which is a subsidiary of CNPC.

China's CBM production is expected to reach 17 billion cubic meters in 2025.

By 2035, the country aims to have proved geological CBM reserves of 5 trillion cubic meters, with an annual production scale of 40 to 50 billion cubic meters, significantly enhancing China's energy security, Zhou said.

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