Chester Dawson, A Chinese Bet on Fracking Fails to Deliver; After a reluctance to embrace new technology, closely held Canada Capital Energy trails many rivals in the Bakken. Wall Street Journal, Oct 1, 2014.
online.wsj.com/articles/a-chinese-investment-on-fracking-fails-to-deliver-1412118451?tesla=y&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12584803618636143833504580170103161794186.html
three consecutive paragraphs:
"Part of the problem is that the Canadian Bakken is shallower and not as rich as the American side of the formation. It also is smaller.
"Canada’s share of the Bakken produces about 71,000 barrels of oil a day, compared with 1.1 million barrels a day in the U.S., according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. The Saskatchewan Research Council estimates the Canadian Bakken holds up to 100 billion barrels, but much of that can’t be recovered easily or economically.
"Canada Capital Energy had other problems, though.
My comment:
(a) "About a decade ago, a Shanghai-based real-estate mogul began amassing 100,000 acres in southeastern Saskatchewan near the North Dakota border. Few people expected it at the time, but the surrounding Bakken Shale formation was on the cusp of revolutionizing North America’s energy industry, creating oil giants of onetime small companies. But NI Zhaoxing’s 倪 召兴 operation–a rare, early foray by Chinese private equity into the North American energy sector–has little output to show for its bet"
(i)
(A) Saskatchewan "became a province in 1905, its name derived from the Saskatchewan River. The river was known as kisiskāciwani-sīpiy ('swift flowing river') in the Cree language." Wikipedia
(B) The capital is Regina, Saskatchewan
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regina,_Saskatchewan
(renamed in 1882 after Queen Victoria, Victoria Regina [in Latin])
(ii) On the western boundary of Saskatchewan is Alberta.
(iii) To know the relative locations of Saskatchewan and Bakken formation, enter both terms (without quotation marks) at images.google.com and the search reseaults will show Noth Dakota in addition.
(b) As I read the English report yesterday, I was confused. Mr Ni bought the land. How does he lose money when little oil is obtained from hisw land? Due to much smaller royalty? No. As I read on, the answer was supplied: The drilling company is owned by his wife ("Canada Capital Energy Chairman GONG Jianxin 龚 建新, who is Mr Ni’s wife").
"The Calgary-based company, which originally had its headquarters in Regina, Saskatchewan, was slow to embrace new techniques that have swept the Bakken and proved crucial to other companies success, such as fracking and horizontal drilling, former executives said.
This explains why the report is dispatched from Calgary.