THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NOVEMBER 27, 2009
SHANGHAI — China has started its first joint development project in shale gas, in a bid to find alternative resources for the cleaner-burning fuel to meet the nation’s rising demand.
Energy major Royal Dutch Shell PLC and China’s top listed gas producer PetroChina Co. have signed an agreement to jointly develop shale gas resources in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, China National Petroleum Corp. said Friday.
The agreement to jointly evaluate shale gas in the Fushun-Yongchuan block was signed Nov. 10 in Beijing, the state-owned parent company of Hong Kong- and Shanghai-listed PetroChina said in a report on its Web site.
This marks the nation’s latest effort to tap shale gas resources after the launch of a Sino-US Shale Gas Resource Cooperation Initiative earlier this month during U.S. President Barack Obama’s first state visit to China.
The initiative is expected to assess China’s shale gas potential through joint technical studies with reference to American experience with shale gas. Development of shale gas in China lags far behind the U.S. where it is a major contributor to the energy mix.
Shale is a sedimentary rock composed of very small particles of clay, mud, and sand. It has a low permeability, meaning that it releases trapped gas very slowly, and can be expensive to develop.
Developing shale gas resources in Sichuan basin has much further room for foreign cooperation, and could potentially alleviate tight gas supplies faced by China, CNPC said.
Beijing wants natural gas to account for 10% of the nation’s energy mix by 2020, up from 3% in 2005.
Low temperatures amid rainy and snowy conditions since early November led to soaring gas demand and severe shortages across the nation, especially in Wuhan and Chongqing in central China and Nanjing and Hangzhou on the east coast.
A Shell China spokeswoman said she wasn’t immediately aware of the project and declined to comment.
Shell, which set up its office in Beijing in 1980, has so far experienced a bumpy road in developing unconventional energy resources in China.
Lim Haw-Kuang, executive chairman of Shell China, said in April that because of the economic downturn, the company had decided to postpone a joint venture with Shenhua Group, China’s top coal producer, to turn coal into liquid fuel.
Shell executives have also said they won’t pursue a foray in northern China into oil shale, a costly and technologically challenging type of oil to produce, even as the company seeks to develop the technology elsewhere.
— Jing Yang
-By David Winning and Jing Yang, Dow Jones Newswires; +61-2-82724688; [email protected]
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
