页岩燃料的未来

Extracting gas used to just mean drilling into trapped pockets of air. But technology now allows us to extract gas from rock. This is called shale gas.
 
Charles Blanchard is an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. He cites a report on this new fuel from the US government.

"This study indicated that China has even higher potential, technically recoverable shale gas resources than the US."

Over 30 trillion cubic metres, according to some estimates. Why is this a big deal?

For one, domestic shale gas could increase China's energy security because it would allow a reduction of oil imports.

Secondly, gas is a lot cleaner than burning coal, which accounts for 70 percent of China's energy.

Professor Zha Daojiong is a member of China's State Energy Expert Commission.

"Environmental challenges in China are real. We simply cannot operate on a policy that says, because coal is somehow abundant, because we worry about uncertainties in global supply, we should just stick to coal. That's simply not an option."

The Chinese government plans to produce 6.5 billion cubic metres of shale gas by 2015. But this is easier said than done. Cutting-edge technology and skills are needed. And this is what China lacks.

Andreas Goldthau is Associate Professor at the Center for Environment and Security in Budapest.

"Getting to that 6.5 bcm requires a lot of effort, and at the moment, China is not there. It doesn't have the technological skills, it doesn't have the management skills, it doesn't have the experience, there's no infrastructure to get that done."

So China needs to learn from foreign firms. That's why this month the government is, for the first time ever, allowing foreign firms with Chinese partners to bid for drilling rights. Those successful will be licensed to explore an area of land in south or southwestern China for the next three years.

For CRI, I'm Dominic Swire.