16 Companies Win Bids to Prospect for Shale Gas

(Beijing) – Sixteen companies won the right to prospect 19 shale gas blocks in a second round of bidding, the Ministry of Land and Resources said on January 21.

Fourteen of the firms are state-owned and two are private.

The companies are to invest a combined 12.8 billion yuan to explore the shale gas blocks over a three-year period that starts this year, the companies' bid documents show.