China's Sinopec Corp said on Tuesday it has found sizable oil and gas flows in a key exploration shale well in southwest China.

Sinopec said the Xingye-9 well, in the Liangping area of Chongqing municipality which is part of the gas-rich Sichuan basin, tested a daily 108.15 cubic metres of oil and 15,800 cubic metres of gas.

The well may lead to the discovery of 100 million metric tons of reserves, the state oil and gas major said in a press release.

The successful drilling follows similar results in late 2021 when Sinopec found an initial 458 million tonnes (3.34 billion barrels) of shale oil reserves at Jiyang trough of its Shengli field in east China's Shandong province.

China's national oil and gas producers have in recent years stepped up exploration of hard-to-extract shale oil and gas resources, as well as drilling as deep as 12 kilometres (7.46 miles) below the surface to boost domestic production.

State media reported earlier on Tuesday that China's crude oil production grew by 3 million metric tons last year to 208 million tons, or 4.16 million barrels per day. That was up 1.6% growth over 2022.

 

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Kim Coghill)