Cracking in China: It Won’t Happen

choi

(1) Brian Dumaine, Fracking Comes to China. With help from Shell and other Western energy giants, Beijing hopes to turn vast shale gas assets into a new source of clean(er) energy. The trick is to avoid an environmental disaster. Fortune, Apr 29, 2013.
http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/11/ ... .fortune/index.html

(a) Quote:

"Shell first broke ground [for exploration] in Sichuan in 2010. But most in the industry agree that China’s shale potential is vast. The US Energy Information Administration estimates that the country has total reserves of 1,275 trillion cubic feet of shale gas--more than Canada and US combined. (The US alone is now estimated to have a 100-year supply.)

“Shell isn’t the only Western energy company hoping to capitalize on China’s shale potential. Chevron recently formed a joint venture with the China National Petroleum Corp and has begun drilling exploratory wells in Sichuan. And Conoco Phillips--in a joint venture with Sinopec--announced in December that it plans to drill wells in Sichuan later this year. The gold rush has begun.

"Geologists have concluded that China's most promising shale gas deposits lie in three giant basins: the Tarim Basin in the northwest, the Ordos Basin in north-central China (including Inner Mongolia), and the Sichuan Basin in the southwest. Millions of years ago these areas were the bottoms of oceans and lakes. Plant and animal matter buried there was covered by sediment, and the heat and pressure from the rock turned the organic sludge into oil and gas.

"Of the three basins in China, Shell picked the Sichuan and Ordos basins to develop first. Both have promising geology. (The Tarim Basin in the northwest is in a desert, and fracking requires vast amounts of water--as much as 4 million gallons per well.)

"Shell is working on these shale assets as part of a joint venture with Petro-China * * * So far the partners have drilled 40 exploratory wells in China, or two-thirds of the 60 total fracking wells drilled in the nation so far.

"In its joint venture with Petro-China, Shell provides the advance technology for finding and analyzing the shale deposits, and the management skills for setting up these wells to be operated profitably.

(b) Excerpts in the windows of print:

‘Our new government is calling for a beautiful China,’ says an executive with PetroChina. ‘We need clean energy, and shale gas will be one of the sources.’

‘If there are shortcuts, Chinese companies will take them, and our grandkids will pay for it,’ says one Chinese environmentalist about fracking.

(c) Note:
(i) Bill Quanbai of Shell in Sichuan:  He looks Asian, but I can not find country origin or meaning of the surname.
(ii) Shell's Jinqiu block, in rural area outside Chengdu  金秋 项目 (name after 四川盆地金秋区块)

choi

(2) Russell Gold, Energy Firm Makes Costly Fracking Bet—on Water; For Antero's planned Ohio River pipeline, payoff hinges on rainfall patterns. Wall Street Journal, Aug 14, 2013.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 52594214383364.html

Antero Resources Inc wants to build a 80-mile, half-billion-dollar pipeline to "carry water from the Ohio River to fracking sites in West Virginia and Ohio.

"The proposed pipeline would slash the company's water costs by two-thirds, or about $600,000 per well, Chance Richie, a water consultant to Antero, said at an industry conference in March. The trucks that now deliver most of that water are a 'very, very large expense,' he said. They also contribute to congested roadways in some rural areas. * * * Many of the rivers and streams that Antero now uses run low in the summer, prompting state officials to stop gas-industry withdrawals.

"In a permit filed with the Army Corps of Engineers, which regulates water withdrawals from the Ohio River, Antero said it plans to build an intake pipe capable of sucking up 3,360 gallons of river water a minute—or about 4.8 million gallons a day.

choi

I forgot to add, at teh bottom of (1):

(iii) A world map accompanying the article shows shale gas reserve estimated by EIA: Canada (388 trillion cubic feet), US (862, No 2 in the world), Mexico 681, No 4), Brazil (225), Argentina (774, No 3), Algeria (231), Libya (290), South Africa (485) and Australia (396)--besides China (No 1).
(iv) The online article is available to paid viewers only. But there is no need to read the rest of the article, beyond quotations above.