ROYAL Dutch Shell Plc has found shale gas in China, a development that could cap imports in a market natural gas producers are hoping will drive demand.

An official with Shell's partner PetroChina said drilling results from two wells Shell drilled had been positive.

"Shell has two vertical wells, and they got very good primary production," Yuzhang Liu, vice president of PetroChina's Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, said in an interview on the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress in Doha.

"It's good news for shale gas," Liu said late Monday.

China currently has no commercial shale gas production.