F. William Engdahl, VT 9-15-14… “NEO – China Shale Gas Strategy a Fiasco” or “How do you say ‘No more Fracking’ in Chinese?”

This is another article showing the NON-benefits of fracking. This time in China. And Washington (DC) may have been behind encouraging China to do this? How surprising (yeah, right)!

More exposure about this Gaia-unfriendly process… and about the USA CORP’s political BS in this matter.

“William has already written about the shale gas hype story here, how the new wells’ output dropped quickly and gross production had only been maintained upward for the “boom period” by vastly increasing the number of wells drilled.

“Two years ago the government of the Peoples’ Republic of China staked a major hope for their energy future on the exploitation of domestic natural gas from its large shale rock formations, so-called shale gas… Today, after hundreds of millions of dollars investment and significant drilling, the dream has evaporated like the ephemeral shale gas they counted on.

“As I detailed in my recent book, China in Gefahr, which in Chinese translation has become a leading bestseller and read by leading policy circles according to reports, the shale gas illusion was a geopolitical ploy by leading Washington circles to divert China’s energy pursuits from the Middle East and Africa and lead them down a dead end.

“Even more dangerous for China, shale gas fracking techniques have been proven to induce earthquakes and to use staggering volumes of water. The last thing China needs is more earthquakes in the growing industrial center of Sechuan which also has significant water problems.“

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NEO – China Shale Gas Strategy a Fiasco
… by  F. William Engdahl, … with  New Eastern Outlook,  Moscow

[Editors note: .  A surprising piece here from Mr. Engdahl on an issue that I had missed completely, that China had made a big shale gas development push, stimulated by what the US had been doing.

William has already written about the shale gas hype story here, how the new wells’ output dropped quickly and gross production had only been maintained upward for the “boom period” by vastly increasing the number of wells drilled.

Despite his expose’ the American energy hustlers, all the way up to Congress, pitched our replacing a lot of Russian gas to Europe with the huge fairy tale shale gas production that was going to give us a big export capacity.

And of course they left out the higher cost on the LNG handling and a $100 billion of investment on the European side for landing and infrastructure work.

But hustlers never let negative items like that wreck a good hype deal. That was our job at VT and we shot it down in flames the first week. After the first promotional pitch, shale gas for Europe disappeared from the discussion. That said, the US got the EU to be its blowup doll for the Russian counter sanctions. Those with big export business to Russia took quite a licking…pardon the expression.

I suspect that because the shale gas fields were in the far West of China they may have been hoping enough could be produced for local needs and save on the transportation infrastructure needed to get energy out there to a growing economy as Peking has been been wanting to spread the population out more.

But all is well with the big Russian gas deal…for the long term contract and the security of delivery by easy to guard pipelines versus the ocean delivery that the US Navy can shut off whenever it wanted. Even the Iranians are hoping to be able to pipe gas to Europe themselves, not to knock Russia out of the box, but to eventually get enough EU gas business to cover its trade import needs there long term… Jim W. Dean ]

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Two years ago the government of the Peoples’ Republic of China staked a major hope for their energy future on the exploitation of domestic natural gas from its large shale rock formations, so-called shale gas.

Today, after hundreds of millions of dollars investment and significant drilling, the dream has evaporated like the ephemeral shale gas they counted on.

Wu Xinxiong, head of the National Energy Administration of China, announced in a speech the surprising news that China’s official target for domestic natural gas production in 2020 was now 30 billion cubic meters for shale gas and another 30 billion cubic meters for coal seam gas.

Just two years ago, the Chinese National Energy Administration estimated that China would produce 60 billion to 100 billion cubic meters only of shale gas by 2020. If Wu’s forecast comes true, shale gas and coal field gas would each supply only 1 per cent of China’s electricity generation needs in 2020. Realistic prospects are it will not even reach that level.

The admission by the government has major geopolitical implications. First, it is a major reason why Beijing, after years of indecision, this May signed the 30-year $400 billion “Gas deal of the Century” with Russia for Gazprom gas to be delivered to China. That deal moved China and Russia a giant step closer in terms of strategic cooperation.

The reason Beijing finally agreed after years of dickering over price was the realization that the US Government and oil company hype about China holding the world’s largest reserves of shale gas was just that—politically-motivated hype.

Even if shale gas were a possible solution to the huge future energy needs of the world’s second largest economy, which it isn’t, the geology of shale rock formations in China is vastly different and less suitable than in the USA. Shale gas deposits lie much deeper in China than in the US. That greatly adds to drilling costs.

The cost for each new well in China is roughly three times the cost in the United States. Chinese shale rocks are also packed 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. China’s shale rocks ae concentrated in Sechuan Province near Tibet in the far West of China. That is precisely where China’s greatest earthquake zone is concentrated.

As I detailed in my recent book, China in Gefahr, which in Chinese translation has become a leading bestseller and read by leading policy circles according to reports, the shale gas illusion was a geopolitical ploy by leading Washington circles to divert China’s energy pursuits from the Middle East and Africa and lead them down a dead end.

In 2011, the United States Energy Information Administration of the government estimated that China had “technically recoverable” reserves of 1.3 quadrillion cubic feet, nearly 50 percent more than the United States. That report, done by a private Washington consulting company that was in many cases based apparently on pure conjecture, created a major illusion in China that shale gas was their magic wand to energy security.

Even more dangerous for China, shale gas fracking techniques have been proven to induce earthquakes and to use staggering volumes of water. The last thing China needs is more earthquakes in the growing industrial center of Sechuan which also has significant water problems.

Now, with realization that US oil companies and the US Department of Energy misled China, the door is open to explore realistic alternatives less destructive to the country.