The Chinese government aims to copy the success fracking industry had in United States, which has transformed the energy picture of the United States entirely in the past decades. The technology was first discovered in the United States in 1950s as an experimental technology, and was used in over 3,000 wells. By the 1970s, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed a regulations on petroleum exports and oil production in the United States, leading to rising gasoline prices in the United States. During this time, the U.S. Department of Energy initiated funding for projects related to the production of unconventional natural gas sources, which lead to the surge of fracking industry. (Shellenberger, Michael, et al) Later
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The United States faced many obstacle when companies tried to pushed hydraulic fracturing to different states. Each states in U.S. has the right to regulate and permit extraction of oil or natural gas. In 2015, an application to develop oil or natural gas on federal land will take an average of 220 days to process. (Humphries, Marc) Besides the federal regulations like Environmental Protection Agency, there are also many active communities against fracking. One notable organization is Earth Justice, which believed that fracking pollutes air and water, makes people sick, hurts communities, and delays the transition to clean, safe, renewable energy. The community tries to advocate and promote bans and limits on fracking. All these issues are almost non-existent in China, because the government is pushing the industry forward, it is reasonable to expect a faster rate of growth than it had in the United States. China also has enormous advantages on labor and its cheap cost, The billions of money that was used as investment is also starting to payback, the cost to drill a shale gas well in Sichuan Basin have lowered over the 2 years of development. (See Graph …show more content…
It appears that China is catching up at an extremely slow rate. China has only tested the technology on small number of wells, and its technology and tools are far behind. Until 2015, China has drilled about 400 wells, in contrast, the United States drilled almost 65,000 wells in only less than a decade. In fact, the Chinese has changed its original production target of 60 - 100 billion cubic meters to 30 billion cubic meters, about 1.7% of the annual demand of the country. Another issue China have is water scarcity, massive amount of fresh water is required to drill and develop shale gas. However, the two biggest deposits in the country are in the Turpan’s desert. With the largest amount of shale gas, China also have some of the worst water problems. Over 60 percent of its shale gas reserves are located in areas marked as “high to extremely high” water stress. Forcefully using the water could also cause tension with the local communities in need of water. This hinders the progress of Chinese shale gas development. (Cunningham,
The United States faced many obstacle when companies tried to pushed hydraulic fracturing to different states. Each states in U.S. has the right to regulate and permit extraction of oil or natural gas. In 2015, an application to develop oil or natural gas on federal land will take an average of 220 days to process. (Humphries, Marc) Besides the federal regulations like Environmental Protection Agency, there are also many active communities against fracking. One notable organization is Earth Justice, which believed that fracking pollutes air and water, makes people sick, hurts communities, and delays the transition to clean, safe, renewable energy. The community tries to advocate and promote bans and limits on fracking. All these issues are almost non-existent in China, because the government is pushing the industry forward, it is reasonable to expect a faster rate of growth than it had in the United States. China also has enormous advantages on labor and its cheap cost, The billions of money that was used as investment is also starting to payback, the cost to drill a shale gas well in Sichuan Basin have lowered over the 2 years of development. (See Graph …show more content…
It appears that China is catching up at an extremely slow rate. China has only tested the technology on small number of wells, and its technology and tools are far behind. Until 2015, China has drilled about 400 wells, in contrast, the United States drilled almost 65,000 wells in only less than a decade. In fact, the Chinese has changed its original production target of 60 - 100 billion cubic meters to 30 billion cubic meters, about 1.7% of the annual demand of the country. Another issue China have is water scarcity, massive amount of fresh water is required to drill and develop shale gas. However, the two biggest deposits in the country are in the Turpan’s desert. With the largest amount of shale gas, China also have some of the worst water problems. Over 60 percent of its shale gas reserves are located in areas marked as “high to extremely high” water stress. Forcefully using the water could also cause tension with the local communities in need of water. This hinders the progress of Chinese shale gas development. (Cunningham,