CHONGQING -- The Fuling shale gas field in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality has added some 104.8 billion cubic meters in proven reserves of shale gas, said its developer Sinopec, China's largest oil refiner.

The latest discovery brings total proven reserves of the gas field so far to nearly 900 billion cubic meters, which accounts for 34 percent of the country's proven reserves of shale gas.

The newly explored gas reserves, also confirmed by the Ministry of Natural Resources, are located in Baima block and increase the accumulative area of proven gas reserves in the Fuling field to 824 square km.

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

The Fuling gas field, discovered in 2012, currently produces over 20 million cubic meters of shale gas per day.

To date, the Fuling field has put 643 wells into production and yielded more than 41.2 billion cubic meters of gas.