Industry Trend: Unconventional Oil & Gas Is Moving Center Stage

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Industry Trend: Unconventional Oil & Gas Is Moving Center Stage

2025-08-20 Viewed:119

Source:Shanghai United Institute for Unconventional Resources

China's energy mix is shifting fast. Unconventional resources have moved from the margins to the growth engine:

(a) 2.4% → 27% of national output over 15 years

(b) 31% within PetroChina today

Photo: Zou Caineng, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Academician Zou's insights outline a "future map" of the energy industry:

Three Revolutions:

1. Unconventional

shale, tight, CBM scaling into the main contributor to reserves & production

2. Deep-Earth

ultra deep milestones (e.g., Deep Earth wells in Tarim & Chuanke) signal systemic capability in the 10,000 m class

3. New Energy：

integration models like Oil & Gas + CCUS / hydrogen / renewables are becoming operational

Four capabilities that will define the next 15–20 years:

1. Full value chain efficiency in unconventional:

Build the world's largest CBM enterprise—be the leader in scale economics, the demonstration benchmark for theory & technology, and the standards setter; accelerate in situ conversion for shale/coal derived resources to unlock cost effective, large scale output

2. New-Energy integration:

basin scale hubs for green power, green hydrogen, green heat to enable oil gas renewables convergence

3. Deepwater Competence:

make offshore the next growth frontier; establish a world class deepwater operating system within 15–20 years for energy security resilience

4. Multi-Energy Synergy:

converge oil & gas + CCUS + renewables + AI while upgrading technology, talent, and management.

What does this mean?

For researchers—aim for rule changing breakthroughs.

For companies—digitalization + decarbonization + integration are now table stakes.

For young professionals—unconventional + AI is where the next leaders will be forged.

Related Extendeed Information

These strategic insights will be central to discussions at the upcoming Energy China Forum 2025 15th Asia-Pacific Shale & Unconventional Resources Conference (Shanghai, October 22–24), where global experts, executives, and policymakers will gather to explore how unconventional energy, new technologies, and multi-energy integration are reshaping the global industry.