CHONGQING — The Fuling shale gas field in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality had by Dec 29 produced a record high of nearly 7.1 billion cubic meters of shale gas this year, up 7.1 percent year-on-year.

Over the winter heating season which began in November, the field has supplied 1.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas, and the daily gas supply currently exceeds 20 million cubic meters, according to its developer, Sinopec, China's largest oil refiner.

Shale gas is mainly methane. It is considered to be a type of clean and new energy resource.

Discovered in 2012 in Chongqing's Fuling district, the Fuling shale gas field has produced approximately 41.5 billion cubic meters of gas to date.

The gas field recently added 104.9 billion cubic meters of proven reserves, bringing its total proven reserves to nearly 900 billion cubic meters, or 34 percent of the country's proven shale gas reserves.