Posted on 03/08/2012 8:21:37 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Shale gas exploration and exploitation in China is still at an early stage.
Natural gas accounted for 4% of China’s total energy consumption in 2010. The natural gas share of total world energy demand was nearly six times that, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2011.
In the first 5 months of 2011, Chinese crude oil import dependence reached 55.2%, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
China’s shale gas resource is 100 trillion cu m, and the technically recoverable shale gas resource is 36 trillion cu m.1
Here are key dates and activities in the progression of shale gas exploration and exploitation in China.2
Before 2004: Study foreign shale gas exploration technology.
From 2005 to 2007: Shale gas resource exploitation.
In 2008: Exploitation of the Upper Yangtze region and planning shale gas project.
In 2009: Evaluating shale gas resource potential and defining favorable exploration targets in key areas.
In 2010: Carrying out exploitation in the Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, and Hubei shale gas areas; conducting shale gas resource exploitation in the Lower Yangtze Anhui, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu regions; and carrying out preliminary shale gas research in the northern region (north, northeast, and northwest China).
In 2011: Defining areas of probable shale gas reserves in China.
According to the preliminary evaluation in China, the shale gas resource is 21.5-45 billion cu m, mainly distributed in five regions: the south, northwest, north, northeast, and Qinghai-Tibet. The south and the northwest have the most favorable reservoir conditions and are the areas of main concentration (Fig. 1).2
(Excerpt) Read more at peakoil.com ...
Best of all for China, they don’t have to put up with any NIMBYs.
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Who isn’t finding shale gas these days?
China announced the results of its most extensive official appraisal of shale gas reserves on Thursday, having found potentially recoverable resources of 25.1tn cubic metres – less than previous estimates.
Although the figure is lower than an earlier estimate of 31tn cubic metres, China is still believed to have some of the largest reserves of shale gas in the world and has been working to develop shale gas as a cornerstone of its energy policy. The new estimate is enough gas to meet the country’s current consumption for nearly 200 years if fully extracted.
As Richard North points out, this changes everything:
The announcement really is a game changer. The Agenda 21 pushers are now going to find it increasingly hard to run with “sustainability” and, with climate change running out of steam, we can see them struggling to create another scare which will have anything like the impact.
The US is the largest shale gas producer at the moment with about 20% of all it’s gas being the shale variety. It has turned itself around from an gas importer to an exporter in the last ten years.
For those who want more gory details on the development in Shale Gas in China, the Peak Oil site, seems to have the best wrap.
h/t Lars G.
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So the Greens and GetUp types won’t have to worry about shutting down the coal industry after all. The Chinese won’t be wanting to buy it anymore!
IMO, LNG is the automobile fuel of the future.
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In the US, aided and abetted by the Obama Administration and its out-of-control EPA, enviro-fascists are doing their best to shut down shale gas mining or frakking, along with coal mining, offshore gas and oil drilling, and nuclear. Yet another reason why China will become the world’s largest economy. If the world finds it hard to deal with China now, just wait until they become energy self-sufficient.
Mad Money's Jim Cramer has been talking about it.
Propane has been around for a while and has never had great success, don’t know if LNG will be much different if any different.
shale gas ping
NG is down bigtime...and LNG outlets are starting to appear.
We have one within a mile here in SoCal.
Orange County Busses run it .
Just to throw in my 2¢, LNG is never going to be a reasonable fuel for the average consumer. LNG must be kept at or below -259°F. It cannot sit in your fuel tank without venting the boil-off or refrigeration.
It is a decent choice for Fleet Service where vehicles that need a significant amount of fuel but return to a service center every day.
But for the average consumer, I would bet on either CNG, or a gas-to-liquids technology that takes the gas and is converted to a fuel used in our existing petroleum liquids market. Shell is making that economical in places like Qatar where the only other market is to create LNG. In that location it can be competitively priced.
Propane has never had the price advantage of Natural Gas. On a energy content comparison, propane is significantly more expensive than Natural Gas.
I do not believe we are at the bottom yet for Natural Gas.
Drilling and Production companies are still adding in the wet gas fields to produce more natural gas liquids. It some areas, the methane is becoming a byproduct and not the primary target. New Natural Gas Processing plants are continuing to be built at a very fast pace.
China will move ahead with their exploration for natural mineral resources UN-impeded by government demands driven by environmental freaks.
Greenpeace and the Sierra Club will never allow this.
Oh... wait...
To a certain point yes, some things drop with development, some don’t. There’s a lot of investment that would have to come first.
Sure beats flaring it off.
The challenge for propane to every follow the drops in price that Natural Gas is chasing is propane has other uses than fuel.
In the chemical/plastic industry, one of the feedstocks for the propene and polypropylene is propane.
This is true and that is part of what keeps the price up. I wonder what the price of NG will do IF they ever get around to using it as a diesel substitute. Friend told me a while back that they needed 5.00 and haven’t been near that in a while. Haven’t looked lately.
Natural gas is currently 2.20-2.40/million Btu depending on market.
http://www.bloomberg.com/energy/
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