Posted on 11/30/2011 9:30:52 AM PST by bananaman22
China is leaving no shale deposit unturned in its effort to develop indigenous energy resources.
On 24 November China’s Ministry of Land and Resources geological exploration department head Peng Qiming said during a press conference that China’s combined oil and natural gas output, 280 million tons in 2010, is projected to rise to 360 million tons of oil equivalent by 2015, a 23 percent increase in four years and will rise to 450 million tons by 2030, a 62 percent increase over 2010 production, impressive rises in production by any yardstick.
And Beijing authorities in their drive are embracing a controversial natural gas production technique that is coming under increasing government scrutiny in both the United States and Britain – hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking.” China has started drilling to meet an ambitious annual production target of 80 billion cubic meters by 2020 by which time the government is seeking to meet a target of generating 10 percent of its energy needs from natural gas and 15 percent from renewable sources and launched a national shale gas research center in August 2010.
In April the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated that China has nearly 50 percent more "technically recoverable" shale gas than the United States, placing its reserves at 1.275 quadrillion cubic feet, 12 times the country’s conventional natural gas deposits, as compared with U.S. shale gas reserves of 862 trillion cubic feet.
Despite rising environmental concerns about fracking in both the U.S. and Europe, Chinese authorities up to now have shown no such hesitations. On 20 October in Shanghai China’s Ministry of Land and Resources Strategic Research Center deputy head Zhang Dawei said, “The government places high emphasis on developing shale gas and has been actively studying supporting policies,” adding that a national shale gas plan will shortly be announced and more than 10 shale natural gas blocks are to be offered to Chinese state and private companies a the second round of auctions Full article at: China to Embrace Fracking In an Effort to Ramp up Energy Production
ping
Was their any doubt?
We’ll get to see the results of a real-time experiment with uncontrolled fracking.
Most of our onshore oil/gas wells get hydraulicly fractured sometime in their lifetime. It isn’t just shale wells for this technology.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.