(Yicai) Sept. 21 -- Shares of Beiken Energy Engineering rose after the Chinese petroleum engineering company said it received an order for shale gas drilling services worth about CNY1.5 billion (USD198.8 million) from PetroChina, the listed arm of state-owned oil and gas giant China National Petroleum Corporation.

Beiken [SHE: 002828] was trading up 2.6 percent at CNY9.38 (USD1.28) as of 2.10 p.m. in Shenzhen today, after earlier gaining as much as 8 percent.

On Sept. 19, Beiken’s Chengdu-based subsidiary signed a drilling service contract with PetroChina’s Southwest Oil and Gas Field for the evaluation and commercial production of the latter’s shale gas resources in some underground geologic formations in southwestern provincial-level regions Sichuan and Chongqing, Beiken announced late yesterday.

The order will not significantly benefit Beiken’s financial performance this year but will have a positive impact on its future development, the firm added.

The Sichuan-Chongqing region is the main shale gas-producing area of PetroChina, the listed arm of CNPC. The shale gas produced by PetroChina Southwest Oil and Gas Field jumped 17 percent to a record high of 6.5 billion cubic meters in the first half from a year earlier, according to the data released by the company in July.

Editor: Futura Costaglione