Shale,Gas,Waits,for,Big,Actions_big for sam是哪个国家

　　The president of Royal Dutch Shell (China) recently announced the plan of investing at 1 billion US dollars in developing the abundant shale gas resources in China.
　　Several months ago, this DutchBritish company’s China Exploration and Production Co., Ltd signed a sharing contract with the China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), based on which the two will explore, exploit and produce shale gas in the FushunYongchuan area of Sichuan. This is the first shale-gas-related product sharing contract signed in China.
　　Then, BP and Chevron followed suit by signing similar contracts with Chinese companies, throwing them into the exploration and production of shale gas in China as well.
　　Total from France is not pleasant with being outpaced by its peers. One of its senior executives said that its negotiation with some Chinese company had come to the final stage and the“pre-contract” had been reached.
　　Foreign companies have already taken actions in the Chinese shale gas market in a low profile.
　　 The Great Shale Gas Market in China
　　This March, the Ministry of National Land and Resources of China held a press conference, in which the official data about the shale gas in China was for the first time revealed to the world.
　　The potential reserves of shale gas in the terrestrial areas of China, after initial reviews, are estimated to be 134.42 trillion cubic meters. The exploitable reserves of shale gas are estimated to be 25.08 trillion cubic meters(the Qinghai-Tibet area excluded).
　　The exploitable reserves estimated to be over 25 trillion cubic meters mean that China is in the leading place in shale gas. Even so, this figure is rather conservative compared with foreign institutions’ estimation. In April 2011, the US Energy Information Administration published a report, saying that the exploitable reserves of shale gas in the world are 6622 trillion cubic feet (about 187 trillion cubic meters). The reserves in the US reach 862 trillion cubic feet(about 24.4 trillion cubic meters) while in China the reserves could be as high as 1275 trillion cubic feet (about 36 trillion cubic meters), No. 1 in the world.
　　The said shale gas refers to irregular natural gas formed from being trapped in shale formations. It mainly exists there though absorption and dissociation and consists of methane. Compared with the usual natural gas, it has the features of being widely distributed, shallowly hidden, spontaneously formed and produced for a long term.
　　From this year, the international oil price almost followed a curve of unilateral increase, forcing China, 56% of whose crude oil depends on importation, to seek a new path. In that way, the shale gas became increasingly important in the field of oil and gas and was highlighted by many companies. For China, it is very necessary to accelerate the exploration and exploitation of shale gas.
　　“China is a country with abundant shale gas resources. The faster development of shale gas industry is of great significance for changing the situation of oil and gas, altering the whole energy structure, releasing China from the shortage of natural gas and keeping the national energy security,” said an expert.
　　The State Administration of Energy and Resources also put forward the plan that the output of shale gas should be increased to 6.5 billion cubic meters in 2015 and then to 60-100 billion cubic meters in 2020. The plan also lists the shale gas as an important part of China’s energy structure in the future.
　　 Long Way of Commercial Use
　　Some analysts stressed that the biggest hurdle for the shale gas to be put into commercial use in China is the difficulty of mastering its core exploitation technologies even though the reserves of shale gas in China might surpass the total reserves in Canada and the US.
　　It is known that the reservoirs of shale gas usually share the physical features of low porosity and low penetration. The resistance from air flow is larger than regular natural gas. Therefore, it is necessary to crack and reconstruct the reservoirs before getting the gas out. This required the state-of-art technologies and by now there are no matured relevant technologies in China.
　　The latest technologies of exploiting shale gas are in the hands of Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron and other multinational energy enterprises. This is one of the major reasons why foreign companies throw themselves into China that intensively.
　　Foreign companies with advanced exploitation advantages are blessed with low production cost. In the US, with the wide use of high technologies, it only takes 250-300 million yuan to build a gas field with the capacity of 100 million cubic meters, almost the same with the cost of exploiting regular natural gas in China.
　　Xiong Wei, a senior researcher with the Natural Gas Economy Institute of the CNPC, said that the development and utilization of shale gas in China is rather young compared with foreign countries. The exploitation cost is high. Thus the international cooperation needs to be enhanced in the exploitation technologies.
　　Nevertheless, some experts think that the foreign technologies cannot be immediately used in China without any tests. That’s because the geologic conditions and reservoirs of shale gas in China is dramatically different from the ones in the US.
　　For example, the reservoir of shale gas in Sichuan is more deeply buried than in the US. In addition to that, it is more difficult to exploit shale gas in China than in the US thanks to the way of its existence.
　　It is known that the shale gas can exist in the form of absorbed gas and dissociated gas. Take the basin landform for example: the amount of absorbed gas in every ton of shale gas is 3.2-3.9 cubic meters in the US while in China, it is only between 1.26 and 2.3 cubic meters. Then, the amount of dissociated gas in every ton of shale gas is 4.8-6 cubic meters in the US and 2.65 cubic meters in China. This great parity determined greater difficulty in exploiting shale gas in China than in the US.
　　Therefore, a new set of technolo- gies should be formed to fit the conditions of shale gas in China. This is a technological goal that needs to be achieved in the “12th Five-Year Plan”. In order to realize this goal, China needs to optimize and renovate foreign technologies after importing them.
　　“Walk on Its Own Path”
　　The US is the earliest country that developed the irregular natural gas. Now, its output of irregular natural gas takes over a half of its total natural gas yield.
　　A group of data shows that the US has fast development in the shale gas development. In 2000 there were only five basins found with shale gas, but in 2010, the number of basins with shale gas has been over 30. By the end of 2012, there will be almost 100 thousand exploratory wells in this country.
　　
　　The successful experiences of the US in shale gas exploration and exploitation are worth borrowing for China. The US government puts forward low requirements for companies to be qualified for shale gas exploration and exploitation. It advocates the diversification of players and encourages them to compete in a fair and open market. The technological development in the US shale gas industry is mainly promoted by small- and middle-sized companies, which has controlled many core technologies.
　　The US government also has a complete legal system for the shale gas industry. From 1935 to 2008, the US federal government and state governments issued 32 policies and laws to support and supervise the exploration and exploitation of shale gas. Seven departments in the US government are appointed to build and maintain a complete and efficient supervision and regulation system over the exploitation and exploration. In addition, perfect infrastructure and professional technological services also support the development of this industry.
　　In comparison, China’s shale gas is haunted by behindhand technologies, low-level specialization, lack of water resource, shortage of management network and dense population in exploitation areas, which all pull back the development of shale gas industry in this country.
　　For the future of shale gas industry in China, Hu Ruiwen, an academician from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that China should follow foreign countries by setting up a highend model of shale gas development and find its own development path on the basis of it.
　　Dr. Li Yuxi from the Oil and Gas Resource Strategy Research Center of the Ministry of National Land and Resources, said that the investment in shale gas development was huge in the initial period along with the high exploitation cost, long production cycle and slow return on investment. Thus, fiscal subsidies, tax reduction and other favorable conditions are greatly needed in the initial phase of developing shale gas. The production cycle of shale gas lasts about 30-50 years. Without the government support, no enterprises can sustain such high investment for that long.
　　Dr. Li suggested that the government should give better support for enterprises involved in shale gas development than the ones engaged in coal bed methane development. The support should cover issuing fiscal subsidies, promoting market-oriented pricing, reducing fees for getting qualifications of exploration and exploitation, cutting the tax for key devices and technologies, and securing the land and water supply.
　　Then, the Chinese government is advised to improve the supervision and consummate the infrastructure construction with the innovation system as the main thread and the opening of market as the core. In addition, both Chinese government and enterprises should work with foreigners to borrow their technologies before innovating based on them.

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