China has awarded two out of four shale gas blocks offered in its first auction of the unconventional gas resource with Sinopec Corp. and a provincial coal seam gas firm each winning one block. ＂Both blocks are in Chongqing area. The contracts will be signed shortly,＂ an official with the Ministry of Land and Resources said in early July 2011. China issued its first shale gas exploration tender with an offer of four blocks to a group of Chinese energy companies in late June, as the country kicked off its search for potentially vast reserves of the resource.