China Energy/Power Technology, Strategic Layout of Resources: News & Discussions

[Han Patriot]

China's longest UHV power transmission line enters operation
By Wang Xueying (CNTV) 14:48, June 25, 2017

An ultra-high voltage direct current (UHVDC) power transmission line has officially entered operation in China, announced the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) on Friday. It marks the longest UHVDC power transmission line for green energy currently in operation in China.

Energy will be carried from Jiuquan City in northwestern Gansu Province to Xiangtan City in central Hunan Province, and is expected to alleviate power supply shortages in five provincial level regions, including central Hubei Province, southwestern Chongqing Municipality and northwest China's Shanxi Province, said the SGCC.

Construction of the 2,383 kilometer-long line was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in 2015. In one of China’s west-east electricity transfer projects, China invested 2.62 billion yuan (383.3 million US dollars) in its construction.

According to the SGCC, the project is capable of transmitting 13 million kWh electricity per second. The line is expected to meet up to 25 percent of Hunan Province’s energy needs, saving more than 18 million tons of coal and reducing carbon emissions by about 29.6 million tons, as well as 88,000 tons of sulfur dioxide emissions.

The SGCC said that the project will promote the development of the clean energy industry in China, as well as improve the air quality in western China.

In fact, the decision to use UHV transmission is based on the fact that China’s major energy resources are in the west and northwest, but huge consumption demands are in the east and south. Compared with a traditional power grid, UHV transmission, especially UHVDC transmission, could largely reduce transmission losses as well as pollution to a manageable level. As a more economical technology for long-distance power transmission, using UHVDC transmission in China is a logical step forward.

At present, there are about 30,000 kilometers of UHVDC power transmission lines under construction and in operation in China, said the SGCC.

This line is gonna cut down wind power curtailment, the largest windpower base on earth in near Jiuquan.

 

[onebyone]

Growth in nuclear power is being led by China, where five of the ten new reactors are located. “This trend is likely to continue in the coming years with around a third of reactors currently under construction being located in China,” said Agneta Rising, the Association’s director-general.

Chinese industry constructed its new reactors in 5 years and 9 months on average. Series build is a major factor in this. A case study showed that 912 issues were identified during the construction of Yangjiang 1-3. Successfully addressing these helped unit 4 to be built more than ten months more quickly than unit 1.

Total nuclear power generated worldwide was up for the fourth year in a row, to 2476 TWh in 2016, which broadly keeps pace with the overall growth of the electricity system. Figures for global electricity of all kinds take longer to compile, but the latest data, for 2014, shows nuclear maintaining a 10.6% share of electricity.

Future growth

The build rate of 9 GWe per year represents a doubling compared to the average over the previous 25 years, said the report. Rising welcomed it as being in line with the needs of the Harmony goal for nuclear power to generate 25% of electricity with 1000 GWe of new capacity in 2050. Rising said the path to acheiving this needs an average of 10 GWe per year of new build now, then a doubling to 25 GWe on average from 2021-2025 and a peak construction rate of 33 GWe per year on average from 2026. This represents a return to the build rates the industry acheived in the 1980s.

Rosatom’s deputy director-general for international business has described the World Nuclear Association’s aim to add 1000 GWe of new capacity by 2050 as fully achievable and “perhaps modest”.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/...ed-in-2016-which-is-the-most-in-25-years.html

 

[onebyone]

Russia’s Gazprom to supply gas to China from the end of 2019 in sign of tighter energy ties

New sales contract signed on the sidelines of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow, while industry executives from both sides also held talks on expanding trade in crude oil

Russia’s largest natural gas producer, Gazprom, will start supplying the fuel to China through a pipeline across Siberia on December 20, 2019, Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller told reporters after a meeting with China National Petroleum Company (CNPC).
CNPC chairman Wang Yilin and Miller met during this week’s visit to Moscow by President Xi Jinping and signed a supplementary purchase and sale contract, the state-owned Chinese company said on its website on Wednesday. It did not provide further details. The contract is part of a gas supply deal the two countries signed in 2014.

The deal is the latest sign that Russia is tightening its ties with China, a major gas buyer. It comes at a time of turmoil for rival major exporter Qatar, which is embroiled in a dispute with its Gulf neighbours who have imposed political and economic sanctions on it.

The new pipeline, dubbed the “Power of Siberia”, has a planned annual capacity of 38 billion cubic metres.

Beijing’s new Silk Road may extend to Moscow-led Eurasian union

CNPC said that it had agreed to speed up the construction of the pipeline and market development, as well as build natural gas processing plants and domestic underground gas storage facilities to make sure the project starts on time.

While the start date appears ambitious, analysts said the volume on the pipeline by the end of 2019 would likely be low ,and ramping up to full capacity would take some time. Russia needs to develop two new gas fields to fill it.

Russia may have offered China concessions on prices to secure its backing for the project, said Massimo Di Odoardo, vice-president of global gas and LNG research at Wood Mackenzie.

“Clearly this announcement is a big push to show the project is still alive,” he said at a press briefing.

“We wondered if this big push could also include some concessions.”

CNPC’s Wang also met Rosneft president Igor Sechin and discussed expanding crude oil trade, improving revenues from their joint refinery project in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin and expanding cooperation in exploration and development of oil reserves in Russia, CNPC said.

Gazprom’s Miller said that natural gas consumption in China was set to reach 300 billion cubic metres annually in the next few years.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/dipl...azprom-supply-gas-china-end-2019-sign-tighter

 

[JSCh]

600m-year-old shale gas reservoir found in central China
gbtimes Beijing
2017/07/07

​

China announced to have the oldest shale gas reservoir yet found in the world. (Photo is illustrative) (Photo: China News Service)

A 600 million-year-old shale gas reservoir has been discovered through an exploration well in Yichang city, Hubei province, China's Ministry of Land and Resources said on Friday.

Shale gas is a kind of natural gas trapped within shale formations and has become an increasingly important source of natural gas in the world.

The discovery opens the possibility for future exploration and development and has major scientific significance, CCTV news reported.

A high-yield shale gas flow has also been found through the Eyiye well no. 1, the first fracturing gas test well deployed in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

It is estimated to have over 500 billion cubic metres of technically recoverable shale gas. It is located in a 1,200-square-metre area 20 kilometres southwest of downtown Yichang.

Professor Kang Yuzhu from Chinese Academy of Sciences stated that the breakthrough made in Eyiye well no.1 is expected to provide a foundation for a new shale gas resource base in middle Yangtze.

Traditionally, China's shale gas has been mostly found in the Sichuan Basin area, the upper reaches of Yangtze.

According to a US Energy Information Administration report, as of 2013, only the US, Canada, and China produce shale gas in commercial quantities.


600m-year-old shale gas reservoir found in central China | gbtimes.com

 

[JSCh]

China wraps up combustible ice mining trial, setting world records
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-09 22:46:13|Editor: Yamei

GUANGZHOU, July 9 (Xinhua) -- China on Sunday completed a 60-day trial of mining gas hydrates, commonly known as combustible ice, in the South China Sea, marking breakthroughs in human's search for alternative clean energy sources.

Started from May 10, the mining operation in waters near the Pearl River estuary has beaten previous expectations and set world records in both the length and total amount of extraction, according to the China Geological Survey Bureau.

The trial exploration produced over 300,000 cubic meters of gas - mainly methane, with an average daily extraction of more than 5,000 cubic meters of high purity gas, and a highest daily output of 35,000 cubic meters, said the bureau.

Meanwhile, 6.47 million sets of experimental data were recorded.

China declared its first success in collecting samples of combustible ice in the South China Sea on May 18, which usually exists in seabed or tundra areas with the strong pressure and low temperature necessary for its stability.

The substance can be ignited like solid ethanol, which is why it is called combustible or flammable ice.

One cubic meter of combustible ice, a kind of natural gas hydrate, is equal to 164 cubic meters of regular natural gas.

China Geological Survey Bureau's deputy director Li Jinfa said combustible ice will play a vital part in China's energy security and economic development.

"It is considered a strategic alternative to oil and natural gas in the future," Li said. "Not just China, the world at large sets eyes on it."

He said other countries like Japan had also begun mining combustible ice, but operations were suspended due to a significant amount of sand entering the production wells.

Chinese scientists this time invented a new technique to prevent sand from disrupting the exploration. Other adjustments were also made to ensure commercial explorations.

Environmental tests showed that there were no methane leaks. Neither did geological hazards occur.

China began research in combustible ice in 1998. The latest exploration showcased a number of breakthroughs.

"China is leading the world in combustible ice exploration, whether it is about theory, techniques, machinery, or engineering," said Ye Jianliang, director of Guangzhou Marine Geological Bureau.

"The trial will have a big impact on the world's energy sector," he said.

Li said his bureau will double the efforts on research to prepare for combustible ice's commercial production, with emphasis on ocean ecology protection and "green" exploitation of the new energy. Regulations on exploitation management and industrial policy are also being drawn up.

 

[JSCh]

Tuesday, July 11, 2017, 12:58
Sinopec full steam ahead with shale gas revolution
By Zheng Xin

A worker checks facilities at a shale gas field in Fuling, Chongqing. (Xinhua)​

China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, the world's largest refiner, has vowed to double its annual natural gas output by 2020 to reach 40 billion cubic meters.

Sinopec's Fuling project will play a leading role in achieving China's goal of producing 80 to 100 billion cu m in 2030

Wang Lu,
an Asia-Pacific oil and gas analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence​

The company, also known as Sinopec, said its Fuling shale gas field, China's first shale gas commercial production program launched in 2014, will reach an annual output of up to 10 billion cu m by the end of this year.

Proven geological reserves of shale gas at Fuling have exceeded 600 billion cu m, after the discovery of more than 220 billion cu m in additional deposits this month.

Sinopec's natural gas output increased 4.3 percent year-on-year in 2016, and it has pledged to further develop its resources in Sichuan as well as in Erdos in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Analysts said Sinopec's efforts are in accordance with China's ambitious goal to wean itself off coal, betting big on a shale gas boom to decrease its dependency on coal and foreign gas imports.

Wang Lu, an Asia-Pacific oil and gas analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said China's aggressive shale gas development target may boost the share of gas in its energy mix.

"Sinopec's Fuling project will play a leading role in achieving China's goal of producing 80 to 100 billion cu m in 2030," Lu said.

"Its shale gas production may contribute about 4 to 5 percent of China's total gas consumption by 2020, and Sinopec can also strengthen its upstream unit, which is weaker than its domestic competitors PetroChina and CNOOC, by developing shale gas."

According to S&P Global Platts, a provider of energy and commodities information, China's liquefied natural gas imports in the first five months in 2017 surged 38 percent year-on-year to 12.88 million metric tons, as pollution concerns spurred greater gas usage.

The Chinese government announced in its 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) for natural gas that it is keen to promote gas usage in the country and plans to raise the proportion of natural gas in the energy consumption mix to around 10 percent by 2020 from around 5.9 percent in 2015.

Natural gas imports will play an increasingly important role in the country's energy mix, especially for coastal regions which are far from pipelines and domestic gas fields, it said.

Wang said China's shale gas resources could be as much as 21.8 trillion cu m, but technological and geological challenges may slow the development of the unconventional gas.

In addition, lowered shale-gas subsidies may also discourage developers, while ample supply from domestic conventional gas, LNG, pipeline imports, and cheap oil might also impede shale gas development, she said.

Li Li, energy research director at ICIS China, a consulting company that provides analysis of China's energy market, said the technological challenge is one of the most significant factors dampening China's shale gas exploration.

Li said despite being the third country that has successfully commercialized shale gas and the sector might become a growing factor, China is currently far inferior to the US in shale gas commercialization mostly due to technological challenges.

Chances are low that China becomes the next shale gas superpower in the near future, and the cooling of the enthusiasm that foreign companies had for Chinese shale gas might also hamper the development, as expertise to access the immense shale deposits is also necessary, she said.

Foreign investors have been pulling back from Chinese shale gas exploration in recent years, including ConocoPhillips of the US, which has quit shale gas exploration in China after abandoning a second block in the Sichuan basin earlier this year, considering the block did not meet its benchmark for commercial development.

"We need the technology and the knowhow to diversify and reduce risks by working with these companies on complicated projects", she said.

However, considering the natural gas price is likely to witness a surge in the future and given Sinopec's dedication to increase shale gas output and reduce costs, the future is promising, she added.

According to the oil and gas reserve assessment office under the Ministry of Land and Resources, against the backdrop of low oil prices, China has come up with the core technologies for the exploration and development of the shale gas, while achieving the localization of key equipment.

China has also set more than 100 technical standards and substantially reduced the cost of shale gas exploration in Fuling.

According to Sinopec, after years of development, most of the key equipment for shale gas exploration has been domestically manufactured, including the drilling wells, and the testing, extraction and transportation facilities.

 

[JSCh]

China to transform Shanghai into world-leading nuclear power tech hub
By Ma Danning (People's Daily Online) 15:50, July 12, 2017

(file photo)​

China aims to build a world-class nuclear energy innovation hub in five years, rallying support from eight state-owned giants and leading academies, a milestone for the country’s ambitious plan to become a global nuclear forerunner.

Located in Shanghai, long a hotbed of nuclear innovation in China, the plan aims to make major breakthroughs conducive to a full industrial upgrading. This will include R&D, manufacturing of fourth-generation reactors and new types of pressurized water reactors; small reactors, marine nuclear power platforms, special nuclear materials; the construction of high-quality test benches and manufacturing chains, according to Zheng Mingguang, deputy general manager of the Shanghai-based State Nuclear Power Technology (SNPTC), the initiator of the project.

The mega plan will be pillared by the establishment of new innovative bodies in Shanghai, including an industry cloud and big data center, an advanced equipment manufacturing center, and a basic science innovation center to further establish China as a nuclear tech leader, high-end facility manufacturer and exporter.

The country's top two nuclear energy makers, China National Nuclear and China Nuclear Power Engineering have signed up, pledging to deploy resources from their Shanghai affiliates to the new hub. Also on board are electrical equipment manufacturers, including Shanghai Electric, and brain powers such as the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics under Chinese Academy of Social Science, Shanghai Supercomputer Center, and Shanghai Jiaotong University.

"As China moves to the forefront of nuclear technology, there is a greater need for the integration of resources between research institutes and companies. In the next step, SNPTC will team up with Shanghai Jiaotong University to build a technology testing and verification base in Shanghai’s Lingang District,” said Zheng.

Shanghai is the birthplace of China’s nuclear power. In the 1970s, it housed China’s first domestically designed and built 300,000 KW Qinshan Plant, when more than 180 facility makers and research institutes laid roots in Shanghai to support its completion. Today, Shanghai has evolved into a major cluster of Chinese nuclear tech companies.

 

[JSCh]

China to develop intelligent drilling systems
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 18:51:56|Editor: ZD



BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists and researchers will develop intelligent drilling systems with independent intellectual property rights, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) announced Tuesday.

The project, launched by CAS, will have the capacity to explore and develop oil and gas 6,000 meters below the ground, and will help increase China's oil and gas output on a large scale, CAS said.

According to chief scientist Wang Zili, the project aims to master intelligent drilling technologies that can support the country's exploitation of oil, gas and geothermal energy in deep formations for the next 20 years.

CAS said China did not have plentiful oil reserves in existing oil fields, but oil and gas in deep formations had huge potential for development, accounting for 52 and 28 percent of the country's total geological resources for oil and gas.

 

[JSCh]

Sinopec goes big on geothermal
By ZHENG XIN and ZHENG YIRAN | China Daily | Updated: 2017-08-15 09:24

A gas station of Sinopec in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province, April 21, 2014. [Photo/VCG]

Refiner to create 20 smokeless cities by replacing coal with clean energy

State-owned China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, also known as Sinopec Corp, said it will further develop geothermal energy in Xiongxian county, Hebei province, as it seeks to make the region smokeless.

Sinopec Corp is also diversifying beyond oil and gas production.

The company said its geothermal energy heating capacity in Xiongxian has reached 4.5 million square meters by July.

It now plans to create 20 smokeless cities nationwide replacing coal with geothermal energy, covering 100 million sq m during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

Geothermal energy is the heat from the Earth, which is considered sustainable and clean. Typically, such heat can be harnessed from hot water resources, shallow ground, underground hot rock and molten rock called magma.

"Geothermal energy has the capacity to partially replace coal-fired heat and reduce carbon footprint, especially in big cities," said Wang Zizong, deputy chief engineer of Sinopec Corp, Asia's largest refiner.

Xiongxian county is part of the Xiongan New Area, a zone located some 100 kilometers southwest of downtown Beijing.

The area was set up for coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, which also spans Rongcheng and Anxin counties in Hebei province.

According to Sinopec, up to 60 percent of the Xiongxian county is rich in geothermal energy resources, with its reserves of hydro-geologic water amounting to 82.1 billion cubic meters.

The local groundwater temperature exceeds 55 C, equivalent to 6.63 billion metric tons of standard coal.

Sinopec has cooperated with Iceland in geothermal energy development long ago. It signed a framework agreement on the expansion of geothermal development and cooperation with Orka Energy Holding Ehf in 2012 and formed a joint venture with the company in 2006.

The JV, Sinopec Green Energy, moved its headquarters to Xiongan in April, seeking to provide over 16 million sq m of heating area generated by clean energy.

According to Li Yangzhe, deputy director of the National Energy Administration, is taking energy transformation place at a rapid pace globally, and renewable energy will play an increasingly significant role in shaping the global energy system.

"The Chinese government is devoted to promoting energy transformation in the country, and has set a goal to raise the percentage of nonfossil energy consumption in primary energy consumption to 15 percent by 2020, which will rise to 20 percent by 2030," Li said.

China is rich in geothermal energy resources, with the Tibet autonomous region, and Yunnan and Sichuan provinces considered the best among them. The country plans to boost geothermal energy generation in these areas.

In 2016, to promote clean energy development and improve the environment, China launched the 13th Five-Year Plan for geothermal energy, the first such plan in this field.

During the 2016-2020 period, China plans to increase installed capacity in the geothermal segment by 500 gigawatts, attracting 40 billion yuan ($5.8 billion) in investment. Meanwhile, China will also enlarge the geothermal heating area by 1.1 billion sq m.

By 2020, China will have 530 million watts of installed capacity in geothermal power as well as 1.6 billion sq m geothermal heating area, according to the country's energy planner.

Zhang Jiehui, deputy governor of Hebei province, said the geothermal resource in Hebei province equals 5 billion tons of standard coal, ranking second in the country.

It is estimated that the total energy consumption of Hebei province this year will reach 350 million tons.

 

[JSCh]

China to build shale gas facilities, issue exploration tenders
By ZHENG XIN | China Daily | Updated: 2017-08-16 08:02

China is likely to build two shale gas facilities in the central and southern parts of the country and issue more tenders for oil and gas exploration, the Ministry of Land Resources said on Tuesday.

The ministry said at a news conference in Beijing that following an investigation, China is also likely to conduct commercial production of shale gas in the southern city of Zunyi in Guizhou province and in Yichang in Hubei province.

The ministry did not give a timetable for the start date at the news conference.

Natural gas is set to play an increasingly important role in the country's energy mix, with the nation pushing to wean itself off coal－betting big on a shale gas boom to rid itself of its dependency on the more polluting energy source and on foreign gas imports for better energy security.

As part of the Chinese government's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) for natural gas, the proportion of natural gas in the energy consumption mix will rise to about 10 percent by 2020, from about 5.9 percent in 2015.

According to the ministry, oil and gas exploration efforts cover a vast 500,000 square kilometers area in the north of the country alone and China has also discovered new natural gas and light crude reserves there.

The ministry said on Tuesday that the authorities are encouraging private firms to participate in a tender for shale gas exploration rights in Guizhou on Aug 18. The ministry said it would also consider more auctions of shale gas exploration blocks outside Guizhou.

China has vowed to further strengthen its oil and gas pipeline network during the next decade. That's in order to further boost the share of gas, a cleaner fuel, in the country's energy mix.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission, the oil and gas pipeline network is expected to reach 240,000 kilometers by 2025, with natural gas pipelines reaching 123,000 kilometers.

With 112,000 kilometers of oil and gas pipelines in the country so far, China will need to build another 128,000 kilometers of pipeline in the next few years, the nation's top economic regulator said last month.

Zheng Jian, deputy head of the commission's basic industries section, said the expansion is to meet China's rapid energy demand and energy diversification needs.

Energy companies are eyeing a bigger slice of the booming sector, with China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, the world's biggest refiner, saying it will double its annual natural gas output by 2020 to 40 billion cubic meters.

Sinopec's Fuling shale gas field, China's first commercial shale gas production program, was launched in 2014. It will reach an annual output of up to 10 billion cu m by the end of this year, Sinopec said.

Proven shale gas reserves of the field, located in Chongqing, now exceed 600 billion cu m, following the discovery of more than 220 billion cu m of additional deposits earlier this month.

Wang Lu, an Asia-Pacific oil and gas analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said Sinopec's Fuling project would play a leading role in China achieving its goal of producing 80 to 100 billion cu m in 2030, and its shale gas production may contribute about 4 to 5 percent of China's total gas consumption by 2020.

 

[JSCh]

New energy to play a dominant role in China by 2030
By ZHENG XIN | China Daily | Updated: 2017-08-17 07:58

Clean energy including non-fossil energy and natural gas will replace coal as the primary energy source by 2030 and account for more than half of China's energy mix by around 2045, a leading economics think tank in China said on Wednesday.

By 2050, coal, non-fossil energy, and oil and gas will each take up one-third of China's energy mix, according to the CNPC Research Institute of Economics and Technology in its annual long-term energy outlook released on Wednesday.

According to Yang Hua, planning director of China National Petroleum Corp, the global energy mix is shifting toward a high-efficiency, clean and low-carbon direction, driven by technological improvements and environmental concerns.

Considering China's significant role in global energy consumption, China's shift toward cleaner energy consumption will be a role model for the rest of the world, he said.

According to the institute, oil demand in the world's second-largest economy will reach a ceiling of 690 million metric tons a year, equivalent to 13.8 million barrels per day, by 2030, compared with last year's estimate of a peak of 670 million tons a year by 2027.

Annual crude output will remain around 200 million tons, or 4 million barrels per day, until 2030, at which point it will start to fall, while natural gas output will reach 380 billion cubic meters by 2050.

The forecast is in accordance with the 2017 energy outlook by BP released earlier, which said natural gas is expected to grow faster than oil or coal, helped by the rapid growth of liquefied natural gas, increasing the accessibility of gas across the globe.

Rapid improvements in the competitiveness of renewable energy mean that increases in renewables will account for around half of the growth in global energy output to 2035, according to the BP 2017 energy outlook.

Natural gas is set to play an increasingly important role in China's energy mix, as the nation cuts its use of coal as well as its reliance on foreign gas imports.

The proportion of natural gas in the energy consumption mix will rise to about 10 percent by 2020, from about 5.9 percent in 2015, according to China's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) for natural gas development.

China has vowed to further strengthen its oil and gas pipeline network during the next decade, with natural gas pipelines reaching 123,000 kilometers by 2025, to further boost the share of gas in the country's energy mix, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

According to the institute, by 2040, China's energy consumption is expected to peak at 4.06 billion tons of oil equivalent, setting the ceiling at a later date and a higher rate than previously expected.

Last year's research paper pegged the consumption peak in 2035 at 3.75 billion tons of oil equivalent.

The institute said it raised its estimate from last year's report considering the demand for transportation is likely to continue to rise until 2050, 20 years later than it had previously forecast.

 

[JSCh]

Massive gas field discovered in north China’s Shanxi
By Hu Chao
2017-09-10 16:43 GMT+8
Updated 2017-09-10 19:42 GMT+8

A massive gas field was recently discovered in northern China’s Shanxi Province with estimated reserves of over 500 billion cubic meters.

The gas field is located in an area bordering the counties of Wuxiang, Yushe and Zuoquan.

Currently, this gas field only has one drilling platform for testing. Local authorities said a few dozen more will be built in the future. An aerial view shows that the drilling platform looks small. But beneath it, the super large gas field measures 1,200 square kilometers, with estimated reserves of over 240 billion cubic meters of coal-bed gas and 300 billion cubic meters of shale gas.

An aerial view shows the only working drilling platform at the site. /CGTN Photo

Shanxi is known as China's largest coal producer. The area is rich in coal resources, and is home to the country’s largest coal-bed gas reserves and ground production.

Around 900 cubic meters of gas are exploited and burned a day at the test drilling platform. /CGTN Photo

Zhang Qinghui, head of the Geological Research Institute at the Shanxi Coal Geology Bureau, told CGTN that they explored this new gas field at a depth of over 1,300 meters, a depth previously unreachable. The new technological breakthrough means that nearly 70 percent of Shanxi’s coal-bed gas reserves can now be explored.

Zhang Qinghui says more platforms will be built in the future. /CGTN Photo

Shanxi's economy relies heavily on coal, however the declining coal market has forced it to shift its focus to the development of clean energy.

Director Xu Dachun hopes their efforts will help Shanxi grow its gas industry. /CGTN Photo

Xu Dachun, director of Shanxi's Provincial Department of Land and Resources, said that with China’s supply-side reforms underway, Shanxi now needs less coal production and more new energy. Their goal is to build a gas field base with a capacity of hundreds of billions of cubic meters, with the hope that the development of the gas industry will not only change the energy structure in Shanxi but also in the bordering areas of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province.

In the past, gas fields could only be mined and operated by state-owned companies. /CGTN Photo

Shanxi has also become China’s first pilot province to transfer the mining rights of gas fields from the government to the market.

Private companies and foreign investors are encouraged to join this sector. Many of them have already been competing to buy the mining rights of gas fields in the province.

 

[JSCh]

New pipeline to boost energy diversification
By Zheng Xin, Zhou Huiying and Tian Xuefei | China Daily | Updated: 2017-09-13 07:27

China is expected to import 30 million metric tons of crude oil from Russia annually starting from next year through two transmission pipelines between the two countries, in the latest step to guarantee China's energy diversification.

Construction of the infrastructure for the major line of China's second Sino-Russian crude oil transmission pipeline will be completed by the end of this month, said Hu Weijun, chief engineer of Jiagedaqi section of the project.

Repeated tests will be conducted for two months until the pipeline goes into service at the beginning of next year, he said.

The 941.8-kilometer pipeline, from Mohe county to Daqing, Heilongjiang province, has the capacity to transmit 15 million tons of crude oil annually.

Analysts said Russia has been a major source of crude for China, and the pipeline is the latest example of energy cooperation between the two countries, which will help ensure China's energy diversification.

Han Xiaoping, chief information officer of China Energy Net Consulting, said China and Russia complement each other as producers and exporters, as China is the world's second-largest energy consumer while Russia is the world's top oil producer.

Li Li, energy research director at ICIS China, a consulting company providing energy market analysis, agreed, adding that the security of pipeline transmission is much greater than that of shipments by sea, and the pipeline will ensure a stable energy supply to China.

Zhang Guobao, former director of the National Energy Administration, said the pipeline, together with the China-Myanmar oil pipeline and the China-Kazakhstan oil pipeline, will help diversify China's oil imports.

According to Hu, the biggest challenge is the extreme cold, with temperatures as low as minus 40 C.

The first 1,000-km pipeline, originating in the Russian town of Skovorodino in the Amur region, enters China at Mohe and terminates at Daqing, and it went into service in January 2011.

It has delivered 104.92 million tons of crude oil so far from Russia, according to Heilongjiang Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau on Sept 9.

According to China National Petroleum Corp, China's largest oil producer and supplier, the nation consumed around 560 million tons of crude oil in 2016, of which 65 percent was imported, and both oil consumption and the proportion imported will continue to rise.

 

[cirr]

Shale gas production continues to grow

http://www.ecns.cn/video/2017/09-28/275484.shtml

 

[TaiShang]

Throughput of Three Gorges Dam exceeds 100 mln tonnes

Xinhua, October 4, 2017

The throughput of the five-tier ship lock at the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower project, exceeded 100 million tonnes as of September this year, authorities said Wednesday.

Despite the suspension of the dam's northern ship lock due to maintenance between Feb. 2 and March 14, the throughput of the project's ship lock reached 100.2 million tonnes in the first nine months, an increase of 5 percent year on year, the Three Gorges Navigation Administration said.

The throughput of Gezhouba Dam on the Yangtze River also hit 102.8 million tonnes, up 7.16 percent year on year.

The Three Gorges project is a multi-functional water control system, consisting of a 2,309-meter-long and 185-meter-high dam, a five-tier ship lock and 26 hydropower turbo-generators.

The project generates electricity, controls flooding by storing excess water and helps to regulate the river's shipping capacity.

The dam was designed to reach an annual shipping capacity of 100 million tonnes by 2030, but exceeded that target in 2011, 19 years in advance.

Last year, the throughput of the dam's ship locks exceeded 130 million tonnes.