PERTH (miningweekly.com) – An independent assessment of ASX-listed Sino Gas & Energy’s resources has identified a significant increase in the company’s resource and reserves.

The company’s total reserves have now increased from 22-billion cubic feet to 327-billion cubic feet, reflecting its commitment to developing the Linxing and Sanjiaobei production sharing contracts (PSCs), in China, and based on progress made on preparatory work for regulatory submissions, reserve planning and scheduling for pilot production.

The total un-risked mid-case reserves and resources also increased by 56% to 5.7-trillion cubic feet, and as a result, Sino Gas’ net share of un-risked mid-case reserves and resources had increased to 1.6-trillion cubic feet.

MD and CEO Robert Bearden said on Wednesday that one of the company’s focal points for 2012 had been obtaining the relevant data and undergoing an internal planning exercise, to enable Sino Gas to start booking reserves this year.

“This independent and detailed assessment has crystallised all of our hard work over the past 12 months into a significant increase in both the total project resource and the expected and realizable value to Sino Gas.”

Bearden said that the company intended to progress development, as the economics of the domestic natural gas market in China continued to suggest attractive returns, while existing pipeline infrastructure, which traversed the PSCs, represented low-cost access to market.

“We intend to leverage off our continued exploration success with a fully funded 2013 work programme to obtain further data on the potential of the blocks and the preparation of Chinese reserve reports for submission later this year.”

He added that with seismic surveying well progressed for 2013, and work on track to have ten drill rigs in the field during the second quarter of 2013, and up to 25 wells completed by the end of the third quarter, Sino Gas remained commited to delivering value to shareholders.