Posted on 12/16/2012 1:55:19 AM PST by Steve Peacock
Providers of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, equipment and services are eyeing the Chinese market to expand their offeringsand the Obama Administration initially will cough up $378,000 so the industry can travel to China to further examine such potential opportunities.
The U.S. Trade & Development Agency (USTDA), an independent White House agency, is providing the grant for what it calls the U.S.-China Shale Gas Training Program, which will help introduce Chinese energy sector officials and project sponsors to U.S. shale gas best practices, policies and technologies.
USTDA last month had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Chinas National Energy Administration (NEA) for this program, according to a solicitation that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor located via routine database research. The initiatives Statement of Work (SOW) says:
This project was requested during the 2012 U.S.-China Oil and Gas Forum and supports the U.S. China Shale Gas Resource Initiative led by the U.S. State Department, as well as the work associated with the U.S.-China Oil and Gas Forum led by the U.S. Department of Energy.
The endeavor will center on the provision four two-day technical workshops that a USTDA contractor will hold in China over a twenty month period. The agency anticipates hosting 50-75 Chinese participants hand-picked by the China NEA in cooperation with USTDA.
These participants largely will come from Chinese government entities and the Chinese firms that have been awarded blocs for shale gas the SOW says.
The programs stated goal is to optimize the potential for U.S. exports, pointing out that In less than a generation, the United States has soared to world leadership in extracting natural gas from shale formations through hydraulic fracturing.
U.S. companies, it continues:
view the current development of shale gas in China as an opportune time to engage this largely untapped market. The Chinese government and its oil and gas companies are also looking to the United States for guidance as they recognize many hurdles exist before the shale gas industry can reach full commercialization.
Considering that U.S. companies already hold that position of world leadership in that industry segment, the document left unclear why U.S. taxpayers will fund its further expansion.
USTDA already is setting its sights on funneling even more cash from the U.S Treasury to this successful industry sector, which is led by multinational corporations such as Halliburton Corp. and Schlumberger Ltd.
Indeed, the SOW makes clear that this Chinese training program, as the agency calls it, is also expected to be an effective business development tool for an upcoming USTDA-funded feasibility study as well as other technical assistance activities in the shale gas sector.
Source document: Solicitation #RFP-CO201361047.
FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE U.S TRADE & DEVELOPMENT AGENCY, VISIT THE MONITOR'S USTDA PAGE.
FOR ADDITIONAL REGIONAL COVERAGE, VISIT THE MONITOR'S CHINA PAGE.
ALSO SEE THE MONITOR'S ENERGY PAGE.
The gummint has bought or will buy or will take or will form ... a fracking outfit and start fracking around the world.
378 thou isn't even consultant fee ... this is a visit to china for some other purpose.
Well of course — how else will the Chinese hope to take over fracking operations on US soil? Thanks Steve Peacock.
Hay Randy, if your surfing this post, there goes your
patents. Obama is going to give China your intellectual
property.
Damn...just damn....frack HERE....and export it to china !!!
If China wants to learn about Fracking they can pay to have this group go over. Why are we paying for it?
Will environuts protest Obama?
Everyone likes to talk about how the Chinese are such brilliant businessmen, but in fact the country has never developed, invented or perfected anything, except industrial espionage. Everything they have was stolen from other countries. Now we just spend our money to give them the tech that out innovators came up with.
i don’t like the idea of US Tax dollars financing china’s exploration of gas & oil, but it seems to me that there must be a tremendous amount of gas & oil under the surface of chiner. if they start producing their own, that would make more available, and drive down the price for consumers and business everywhere, through supply & demand. we are starting to liquify much of ours, and exporting it, making less available here. enabling china to produce there own won’t be great for oil/gas companies in America, but great for consumers.
Let China use their own d*** money.
“Let China use their own d*** money”.....we already borrowed all of chiners $
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