Don’t worry, this is just the prelude to wall-e.

Gas is generally easy to find. Most of the sedimentary basins in China are lacustrine in nature, so they’re naturally going to have significantly more gas than many other places. It would be impressive if they actually made an oil discovery over there.

Also, discovery and development are two different things. Sinopec spent tons and tons of money in the US over the past decade and a half trying to learn how to extract hydrocarbons from shale. It takes specialized equipment and experienced personnel to make it happen. They have the know how, but they don’t have the equipment or people to produce it economically and safely (in regards to people and environment).

Oh, one more thing. China has a ton of very shallow large tectonic faults that are under stress. They have a rich history of massive earthquakes that caused severe loss of life. Hope they’re being very careful with how and where they’re drilling their wells.