Construction and prospect of China's shale gas technical standard system

Shale gas is as an emerging industry and its development is highly concerned in China. Under the guidance and support of national industrial policies, shale gas industry develops rapidly and has already stepped into the stage of large-scale exploitation of shale gas buried less than 3500 m deep underground. In order to standardize the healthy and rapid development of shale gas industry, ensure available standards for the national supervision on shale gas exploration and development and quickly copy the technologies in the efficient exploration and development of shale gas, it is necessary to formulate the technical standards and technical standard system of the whole shale gas industry chain. In this paper, the current situations of shale gas exploration and development technologies in China were analyzed. Then the role and significance of the formulation of shale gas technical standards in promoting the progress of shale gas technologies were described in detail. Finally, the development direction of shale gas exploration technology and standard formulation was predicted. And the following research results were obtained. First, China has established the exploration and development theories and technical systems that are in line with national conditions, and 27 distinguished technologies of 6 technical series have been developed, including comprehensive geological evaluation of shale gas, development optimization, optimized and fast drilling of horizontal wells, stimulated reservoir volume of horizontal wells, factory-like operation, and distinguished, efficient and clean exploitation. Second, 173 distinguished shale gas standards have been formulated, and they provide a powerful support for the quality and fast development of China's shale gas industry. The annual output of shale gas in 2019 is 143.6 × 108 m3. In conclusion, the construction of shale gas technical standard system promotes the continuous improvement of shale gas exploration and development technologies, impels the significant upgrading of technical level and ensures the all-around HSE control.