China's unconventional natural gas output was 112 billion cubic meters in 2013, up only 0.34 percent year-on-year, a record low in five years, Sublime China Information Group Co Ltd said on Tuesday.

Although the government has put great effort and applied preferential policies for China's unconventional energy development, especially for shale gas, the real utilization rate is not high enough, the commodities consultancy said.

Wang Xiaokun, an analyst at Sublime China Information Group Co, said there might be breakthrough in coal gas and shale gas development this year. At present, there are four coal gas projects with a total capacity of 4.9 billion cu m annually in the country.

Wang also estimated that the slow domestic natural gas output increase will lead to higher dependency on foreign supply in the next three years.