Stimulating shale gas development in China: A comparison with the US experience

Peer Reviewed
1 January 2014

In this paper, we use the US shale gas experience to shed light on how China might overcome the innovation problem inherent in exploring and developing shale gas plays with complex geology.

We separate shale gas development into two stages, an innovation stage and a scaling-up stage, with the first presenting a much bigger challenge than the latter. Our analysis suggests that China's national oil companies offer the best hope for overcoming the innovation problem. China's policy of opening shale gas development to new entrants is a market-oriented reform that can be justified on various grounds, but the new entrants will not play a major role in overcoming the innovation problem even though they may help scale up production later on.

Topics

Files and links

Country
Sustainable Development Goals

Request a publication

Due to Copyright we cannot publish this article but you are very welcome to request a copy from the author. Please just fill in the information beneath.

Authors I want to contact
Publication | 26 December 2014