A large coal-bed methane (CBM) field with 16 billion cubic meters of reserve at conservative estimate has been found in Wubao County of Shaanxi Province, North China, an official of the county told Xinhua-run China Securities Journal.

    Such a reserve ranks among the largest in China, said a market analyst.

    Till now, the recoverable reserves and commercial reserves of the CBM project are not yet clear, but the prospecting work is expected to be completed before November. Wubao is also found to have rich high quality coking coal resource with a proved reserve of 1.575 billion tons, and abundant shale resource with a proved reserve of more than 20 billion tons.

   Earlier in October of last year, China United Coalbed Methane Corp. Ltd. found a coalbed methane field with a proved geological reserve of five billion cubic meters in Hancheng, a county not far away from Wubao County. Hancheng-based CBM field hasa technical exploitable reserve of 2.505 billion cubic meters and economic exploitable reserve of 2.255 billion cubic meters.

    The new discovery, in Wubao county of Shaanxi province, may trigger competition between PetroChina and Chinacoal since only these two companies are capable of develop such big reserves.