Extraction of Natural Gas in China; A Progress Report

choi

My comment: This is an important topic. Nesides, cn.nytimes.com does not add new translations on weekend--and today is Friday; so the earliest will be next Monday (Aug 25) for the translation of this report to appear in cn.nytimes.com. I choose to introduce the English-language report to you now.

Keith Bradsher, No Easy Path to Natural Gas; China’s extraction efforts in shale and coal seams are falling short. New York Times, Aug 22, 2014 (appearing in first page of the Business section).
www.nytimes.com/2014/08/22/busin ... alls-far-short.html

Quote:

(a) "China’s main problem is that shale gas production has fallen far short of expectations. That has left the country relying on [a lesser method of] pumping natural gas from coal fields.

(n) "With domestic supplies increasing slowly, China has been looking elsewhere[: Russia, Quatar, Australia and Yemen.]

"The country will not approach the success of the United States in shale gas anytime soon. Shale gas deposits lie much deeper in China than in the United States, which greatly increases drilling costs. Chinese shale also tends to be laden with clay and is much wetter than American shale, making it harder to crack the shale and release the gas through pumping liquids and sand underground, the process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

"After 40 million years of powerful earthquakes as the Indian subcontinent plowed into southern Asia, the main shale gas seams in western China are jumbled underground, instead of lying flat like a stack of pancakes, as in the United States, said Jeff Layman, a partner in the Beijing office of Baker Botts, the big Houston energy law firm.

Note: Shouyang  山西省晋中市 寿阳县