China’s shale block struggles

摘要

China is having trouble finding attractive shale gas blocks to offer in a third licensing round,government sources told Reuters. This struggle increases the sense that China’s shale produc-tion potential may be exaggerated,said Reuters. Some 400 wells have been drilled and geological surveys conducted in blocks awarded in China’s first two licensing rounds.However,China has only one large shale discovery and few international investors in the shale sector. Last year,despite potentially holding the largest technically recoverable shale gas reserves,complex geology,water scarcity and high drilling costs led Beijing to more than halve its 2020 output target to 30 Bcm(1.06 Tcf),or 18%of China’s current demand.