China’s production of unconventional gas in 2014 totaled 4.9 Bcm, soaring 42% year on year, although this pace of increase will still fall short of official targets for 2015, data from the country’s Ministry of Land and Resources showed Monday. Coalbed methane output rose 23.3% year on year in 2014 to 3.6 Bcm while shale gas production was 1.3 Bcm, expanding by over five times from 2013, the ministry said. The shale gas output is just under the 1.5 Bcm that the ministry expected in September would be reached in 2014. China has targeted shale gas output to hit 6.5 Bcm/year by this year, the end of the current five-year economic plan. Article continues below… Platts Natural Gas Alert provides global coverage of the major natural gas and LNG markets, including real-time spot market transactions reported as deals are done and key end-of-day crude […]