China's New Coal Plan Targets 26 Bcm Coalbed Methane by 2030
Beijing's domestic gas production targets, combined with rising coal-to-gas capacity, point toward reduced Chinese LNG import appetite through the decade.
China's National Development and Reform Commission and National Energy Administration jointly published a coal industry development plan on Wednesday (2026-08-12) setting a target to produce 26 billion cubic metres of coalbed methane and utilise 6.5 billion cubic metres of coal mine gas annually by 2030. Reported by Xinhua, the plan also requires coal consumption to peak by that year and non-fossil fuels to reach 25% of total energy consumption.5
The coalbed methane figure is the one that moves LNG markets. At 26 Bcm, it would represent a substantial increment over current output and a direct substitution for pipeline or spot imports. JKM, the Asian spot LNG benchmark, stood at $21.18 per MMBtu on Wednesday (2026-08-12), trading in a range already sensitive to Chinese demand signals as the market moves into the autumn shoulder season.5
Progress on the ground has been faster than plan timelines might suggest. PetroChina's Daji gas field — China's first commercially developed deep coal-measure gas field, situated on the eastern edge of the Ordos Basin — reported cumulative output exceeding 3 billion cubic metres by Tuesday (2026-05-19). Its 2024 production alone reached 1.69 billion cubic metres, a 79.2% year-on-year increase.1
Deep coalbed gas, a subset of the broader coal-measure category, hit 2.5 billion cubic metres of total national production within just three years. China's National Energy Administration listed this as one of the top ten landmarks in oil and gas exploration for 2024. PetroChina Coalbed Methane Company produced nearly 2 billion cubic metres of deep coalbed gas in 2024.2
The reserve base is large enough to support more ambitious production trajectories. Coal-measure gas is distributed across the Ordos, Sichuan, and Junggar basins, with estimated reserves exceeding 40 trillion cubic metres, according to world-energy.org. Zhou Lihong, Executive Director of PetroChina Coalbed Methane Company, said cumulative proved reserves grew by 320 billion cubic metres over the past three years, with 77% of that increment coming from deep formations.1,2
Coalbed gas production was projected to reach 17 billion cubic metres by 2025 — roughly two-thirds of the 26 Bcm target now embedded in Wednesday's (2026-08-12) plan. Looking further out, Zhou said China aims to confirm 50 trillion cubic metres of deep coalbed gas reserves by 2035 and lift annual production to between 40 and 50 billion cubic metres.2,5
Coal-to-gas conversion is running alongside these upstream ambitions. Rystad Energy estimates China's coal-to-gas capacity will reach 9.4 billion cubic metres per year by the end of 2026 and expand to 28 billion cubic metres per year by 2030, with around 20 billion cubic metres of new capacity currently under development. Rystad said rising coal-to-gas output could increasingly affect China's LNG demand and influence supply flows from producers in Australia, Qatar, and the United States.3,4
Wednesday's (2026-08-12) plan also sets structural targets for the coal industry itself. By 2030, large modern coal mines are expected to account for 87% of national coal production capacity, with intelligent mines at 75%, and the five major coal supply bases projected to contribute more than 80% of national output. Coalbed methane production overlaps directly with this modernisation drive, since much of the resource sits within or adjacent to active mining operations.5
Execution risks are real. Deep coalbed gas development requires drilling and reservoir management technology that PetroChina and its peers are still scaling across diverse geological conditions. Daji is a single demonstration project in one basin. Replicating its growth rate across the Sichuan and Junggar basins simultaneously, within Five-Year Plan budget cycles, is a different proposition entirely.1,2
Rystad has described coal-to-gas as one of China's hedges against LNG supply disruption from geopolitical risk. Wednesday's (2026-08-12) plan adds a coalbed methane target of comparable scale. Whether the two domestic supply programmes together track their stated timelines, or slip as Chinese unconventional gas programmes have done before, is the factor most likely to move Chinese LNG import volumes, and with them JKM, through the back half of this decade.4,5