02-20-2013, 04:06 AM
China’s Shale Gas No Revolution as Price Imperils Output: Energy
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-19...nergy.html
Excerpts:
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China, consuming energy at the fastest pace among major economies, has set ambitious targets to exploit its reservoirs of shale gas, the same fuel the U.S. touts as the means to energy independence. It won’t meet them.
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China is spending $17 billion a year on natural gas imports, about half in the form of liquefied natural gas. The country will open a record number of LNG receiving terminals this year, proving a boon for more than $100 billion of projects being built by companies such as Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp. in Australia and Papua New Guinea.
The lack of shale enthusiasm was evident in December at the government’s latest and biggest auction of blocks of land containing natural gas trapped in shale rock strata. Coal miners and provincial government investment firms with no experience of shale drilling were among winning bidders. The bids by the big two gas producers and China National Offshore Oil Corp., the largest offshore oil producer, failed.
Awarding shale gas prospects to inexperienced companies in the second auction and government price controls on natural gas are likely to ensure imports continue to rise.
China imported $8.3 billion worth of liquefied natural gas last year, up 41 percent from 2011. Piped gas comes mainly from Turkmenistan.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-19...nergy.html
Excerpts:
****
China, consuming energy at the fastest pace among major economies, has set ambitious targets to exploit its reservoirs of shale gas, the same fuel the U.S. touts as the means to energy independence. It won’t meet them.
****
China is spending $17 billion a year on natural gas imports, about half in the form of liquefied natural gas. The country will open a record number of LNG receiving terminals this year, proving a boon for more than $100 billion of projects being built by companies such as Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp. in Australia and Papua New Guinea.
The lack of shale enthusiasm was evident in December at the government’s latest and biggest auction of blocks of land containing natural gas trapped in shale rock strata. Coal miners and provincial government investment firms with no experience of shale drilling were among winning bidders. The bids by the big two gas producers and China National Offshore Oil Corp., the largest offshore oil producer, failed.
Awarding shale gas prospects to inexperienced companies in the second auction and government price controls on natural gas are likely to ensure imports continue to rise.
China imported $8.3 billion worth of liquefied natural gas last year, up 41 percent from 2011. Piped gas comes mainly from Turkmenistan.