By John Richardson CHINA has more shale gas reserves than the US, and, like the US six years ago, confronts a dangerous reliance on imported energy. But the development of the shale industry in China is being hampered by water shortages, poor intellectual property rights protection leading to lack of access to cutting edge US […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Gas, Gas, And Perhaps Even More Gas
By John Richardson THE global petrochemicals industry is stepping on the gas as it accelerates both capacity expansions and the restructuring of existing assets. Apologies for the pun. In the US, of course, some 25m tonnes/year of ethylene capacity is due to be added, most of it after 2017, thanks to big volumes of cheap […]
US Support For Big China Shale Gas Challenge…..
……..Significant Commercial Production “At least Ten Years Away” By John Richardson A US-China Shale Gas Training Programme has been launched by the independent White House agency, the US Trade & Development Agency (USTDA). An initial $378,000 will be invested to enable the US industry to travel to China and “help introduce Chinese energy sector officials […]
Multiple Energy Options In China
Source of table: The Economist By John Richardson WHEN you are an energy giant such as Shell you can afford to explore multiple avenues in an effort to profit from China’s long-term energy needs. Thus Shell re-affirmed last week that it plans to invest $1bn in a year in exploiting the country’s vast shale-gas […]
The China Shale Gas Risk
By John Richardson FIVE years ago everybody had written-off the US petrochemicals industry, but now the industry is incredibly gung-ho, thanks to shale gas – even if the issue of demand is somewhat more problematic. In five years time, might the world once again look a very different place as a result of shale gas […]