One Wonders If Qatar Is Watching -- Update On Costa Azul -- April 14, 2024

Locator: 47008NATURALGAS.

 
I track Coast Azul here. Update: project was delayed; now, June 6, 2026, production has begun. Links everywhere.

Link here but I'm sure there are many links elsewhere.

San Diego-based Sempra Energy is targeting summer of 2025 as the commercial operations date for its 3.25 mtpa (0.43 Bcf/d) nameplate capacity Energía Costa Azul (ECA) LNG Phase 1 project, located in Ensenada in Baja California, Mexico. The project will source U.S. gas.

This is a must-read, NY Times, February 13, 2024. Truly incredible.

As soon as next year, the United States’ fossil fuel industry will gain its first foothold on a valuable shortcut to sell natural gas to Asia. The shortcut goes straight through Mexico.

The new route could cut travel times to energy-hungry Asian nations roughly in half by piping the gas to a shipping terminal on Mexico’s Pacific Coast, bypassing the traffic- and drought-choked Panama Canal.

The terminal is symbolic of an enormous shift underway in the gas trade, one that will influence fossil-fuel use worldwide for decades and have consequences in the fight against climate change.

The American fracking boom has transformed the United States into the world’s largest gas producer and exporter. At the same time, the rest of the world has begun using ever more gas — in power plants, factories and homes — partly to move away from dirtier fuels like coal. Demand is particularly growing in China, India and fast-industrializing Southeast Asian countries.

And more, with a map, whoo-hoo! :

In Mexico, the action is centered for now on a gas terminal, Energía Costa Azul, that was originally designed to send gas in the other direction: For more than a decade it has unloaded gas from Asian tankers and piped it to California and Arizona to be burned to produce electricity.

Fracking changed everything.

Now Costa Azul, pinched between Baja California’s agave-covered mountains and the vast Pacific Ocean, is undergoing a $2 billion transformation into an export facility for American-produced gas. It’s the first in a network of gas exporting facilities planned down Mexico’s West coast.

China Natural Gas Production Update -- April 330, 2019

See "NaturalGas_China" tag.

China won't come close to its 2020 goal of 30 billion cubic meters natural gas production.

Independent analysts expect China to produce 13 billion cubic meters natural gas per year production by 2020. 

Random Update Of China And LNG Imports -- April 24, 2018

When I first started blogging some years ago, I knew nothing about natural gas. I think I know a bit more now, but not much.

So, for me, Irina Slav's article on China and natural gas is fascinating. I believe I have seen all of this data before but it's interesting to see it another context.

The headline: can China combat its natural gas crisis? Well, obviously China will combat its natural gas crisis; it already is.

The real question is whether China will succeed. I assume China will succeed but the story will be interesting to follow. If it does not succeed, it's back to more coal and nuclear. India has already made one choice: India will cut back on plans for some nuclear reactors and rely on coal instead.

China, on the other hand, appears to be taking a different direction. Some data points:

• last year (2017)
• China became the world's second-largest LNG importer
• China imported 38 million tons of LNG
• China increased it LNG imports by 46 percent over the previous year -- 46%!
• Now (2018):
• "China will boost its LNG import capacity to 26 million tons annually over the next six years from the current 9 million tons. China's total of LNG import capacity is 17 million tons." (sic)
• China is turning depleted gas fields into storage facilities 
• China plans to have all 25 underground gas storage sites before this winter (2018 - 2019)
• China plans to increase LNG by 25% this year, up to nearly 50 million tons
• fresh customs figures, March, 2018:
• almost a 65% increase in LNG shipments
• 3.25 million tons (annualized = 39 million tons)
• first quarter this year
• 12 million tons LNG imported
• almost a 60% increase on 1Q17
• lots of infrastructure needed: import terminals; pipelines; storage faclities
• will drive GDP

China's Move To Natural Gas -- April 3, 2018

Quick! Read the excerpt from this linked story and tell me what jumps out at you:

China’s seemingly endless thirst for natural gas is on a collision course with not only U.S.-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) project developments, but others as well, including Russia and Australia, in a move that is revolutionizing global markets for the super-cooled fuel.

Per China’s government mandate to replace coal-based power generation with natural gas, the cleaner burning fuel is set to make up at least 10 percent of the country’s energy mix by 2020, with further earmarks after that.

Not only is China’s pivot away from coal to natural gas changing natural gas market dynamics, both piped gas and LNG, it is also causing a knee jerk response among the country’s state-owned oil majors.

Yesterday, state-owed Sinopec Group said that it aims to more than double its receiving capacity for LNG over the next six years. The company will add new LNG receiving facilities along China’s east coast for a total of 26 million tonnes annually by 2023, up from the current 9 million tonnes. Currently, China has 17 LNG import receiving terminals.

The company also wants to increase its domestic shale gas production by two-thirds by 2020. Sinopec said it will have some 60 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas capacity, which includes imports and also domestic production by 2023. In 2017, it produced only 27 bcm of gas.

What jumps out at you?

After years of talking about China replacing coal with natural gas one would think that China was farther along in this endeavor than this. After all this, after all these years .... Per China’s government mandate to replace coal-based power generation with natural gas, the cleaner burning fuel is set to make up at least 10 percent of the country’s energy mix by 2020.

10%.

10%.

10%.

There's another story line here, but let this sink in for awhile.

China's Soaring Natural Gas Output Unable To Meet Demand -- Reuters -- February 5, 2018

Link here. Data points:

• China’s natural gas production is rising at the fastest pace in four years 
• production will not meet China's demand for natural gas
• policy decision some years ago: government program to raise gas usage in order to clean the country's polluted air
• record production in 2017, up 8.5% from 2016
• forecast to climb another 6 to 8 percent per year through 2020
• demand will fuel growing imports of LNG or piped gas
• China: now the world's largest energy consumer
• China: was the sixth-largest gas producer in 2016 after rising investments over the past 20 years
• consumption is climbing even faster -- climbing 15% in 2017

Much, much more at the link.

From the article:

China holds the world’s largest reserves of shale natural gas, according the U.S. Energy Information Administration. However, much of that gas is considered recoverable only if cost were not a constraint.

Furthermore, the country is among the top ten holders of proven natural gas reserves, gas that could be produced at current prices, at 5.4 trillion cubic meters, according to the most recent BP Statistical Review.

Together, China’s three biggest gas basins, the Ordos in northern China, the Tarim in the Xinjiang region in the west, and Sichuan in the southwest, make up 90 percent of the country’s output. But each of them are beset with geological or technological difficulties.

State-owned PetroChina boosted production at the Ordos’ Changqing field to 36.9 bcm last year but only after drilling over 2,000 new wells. Output there peaked at 37 bcm in 2013. 

Something not said in the aritcle that should have been said:

• there is no way wind/solar energy can substitute for fossil fuel or nuclear energy. An inconvenient fact.

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Meanwhile, Prince Salman Plans To Go On Tour

If you google Trump state dinners you will get 3 million hits, all with some variation of this headline: President Trump breaks tradition; first president to host no state dinner in his first year of office.

Well, la de dah! Saved a lot of taxpayers' money, perhaps to offset the cost of Melania's air travel before she moved to the White House ($675,000).

Michelle's family vacation to Hawaii in 2015: $4.8 million.

Many of Obama's state dinners costs are "shrouded in mystery" (i.e., kept secret); state dinners under Obama soared in cost; and, link here,

The 300-guest November 2009 dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — best remembered for Michaele and Tariq Salahi’s ability to crash the party — cost $572,187.36. [One state dinner: almost exactly the price of Melania's flights to DC; I wonder if she got to keep the frequent flyer miles?]

It was the president’s first state dinner and also the most expensive of the five state or official dinners Obama has given about which costs are now known. (The cost of the March 2012 dinner for British Prime Minister David Cameron remains shrouded in mystery, and the Hollande dinner was arranged after CBS made its request for the information [I guess the writer couldn't update his own article].)

Folks may remember that President Trump's first visit overseas was to visit Saudi Arabia. Will President Trump's first state dinner be to host Prince Salman? Will the CIA ensure there is no coup in Riyadh when the prince is out of town? Do bears poop in the woods?

Perhaps, also on tour, Simon Helberg's brother or doppelganger:

h

I stumbled across this video, maybe a year ago, but never had an opportunity (or reason) to post it.

The Taliban forbids kite-flying, dancing, and singing. It starts to make sense. I suppose.

Memo to self: new tag, "Folk Music."

As for myself, I'm sticking with Sophia Loren:

Wow, Wow, Wow -- December 7, 2017

The headline:

The lede:

China is backpedaling on its massive push for the coal-to-gas switch after the move created gas shortages in the north that left people freezing in the cold snap.

The Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection said on Monday in an urgent letter to 28 cities in the north that residents now could continue burning coal or firewood to keep themselves warm in the areas where the switch from coal to natural gas and electricity has not been completed, Caixin reports, despite the ban on coal.

“It is not wrong for Beijing to push the coal-to-gas switch, but the process was a bit too fast and outpaced the market’s capacity,” Xu Bo, a researcher with CNPC’s Research Institute of Economics and Technology, told Reuters.

So big has been the drive to switch from coal to gas, that China has been buying up liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes on the spot market, pushing spot prices higher than the prices of the oil-indexed LNG cargos in the long-term delivery contracts. Last week, Asia’s LNG spot prices jumped to the highest since January 2015 due to the Chinese demand and strong oil prices.

Related story.

If you listen to the interview below, it sounds like New England has the same problem as China and is solving it the same way: using diesel fuel as heating fuel during the winter.

Spooky Scary -- Shale LNG -- US, China -- September 11, 2017 -- Why Coal Will Rise Again

Spooky, scary:

• China is using LNG at "an alarming rate"
• Current LNG glut could turn into a deficit twice the output of leading producer Qater
• LNG capacity will start declining in some areas only four years from now

From Bloomberg:

The global glut plaguing liquefied natural gas markets may start to dwindle in five years, threatening to spur a deficit equivalent to twice the output of leading producer Qatar.

New projects are needed to fill the shortfall, with demand for the super-chilled fuel forecast to double in the 20 years to 2035.

Buyers in Asia are boosting use of the fuel at a “staggering” pace, Jack Fusco, chief executive officer of U.S. exporter Cheniere Energy Inc., said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

While plants currently in operation or being built will add to global oversupply, aging facilities and shrinking resources in some areas mean capacity will start declining after 2021.

That’s a boon for companies from Royal Dutch Shell Plc to Tellurian Inc. and Novatek PJSC looking to invest in new production in the next decade to meet demand.

“The continuous growth of the LNG market will leave a large margin for the implementation of new projects,” Cedigaz said in the report emailed Thursday.

The U.S. shale boom will make the country the biggest LNG producer by the end of the period, according to the Cedigaz report. Output will end in some nations such as Trinidad and Tobago.

“I foresee that the LNG market needs at least a hundred million tons of new liquefaction capacity above what’s under construction today in order to meet demand needs of the market by 2025,” Meg Gentle, chief executive officer at Tellurian, said by phone Thursday. “Demand is growing more than people expected.”

And it's not going to be just China.

There may be a reason China is moving to EVs -- energy requirements are not going to be met by oil or natural gas.

Back to coal. And sooner than we thought.

China LNG Imports Hit Records -- Bloomberg -- December 22, 2016

China LNG imports hit record, Bloomberg. Data points:

• China's LNG imports surged to a record in November, 2016
• China is the world's third-biggest buyer of LNG
• inbound LNG shipments jumped almost 50% compared to a year ago
• 2. million tons in November, 2016
• natural gas imports via pipeline: a 7% increase to 2 million tons
• it looks like China will set another record this month, December
• pricing: spot LNG is at a nearly two-year high at $9.40/million BTU
• China is forecast to experience the coldest winter since 2012

See also this post.

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The Football Page

I remember hearing about this but had forgotten: Thursday Night Football would be live on Twitter. I just noticed the game on Twitter and I have to admit that it's not bad --

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The Political Page

From PEOTUS, via Twitter:42 minutes ago, about 8:23 p.m. Central Time:

The so-called "A" list celebrities are all wanting tixs to the inauguration, but look what they did for Hillary, NOTHING. I want the PEOPLE! 

This was absolutely predictable. The 2017 inauguration balls are going to be the most sought-after events in decades. I still think there's every likelihood that before it's all over, there will be comparisons with Camelot.

Meanwhile, over at Drudge tonight, this teaser: "Washington Post lead Friday: Obama White House Feeling Upstaged...." and then it links to this story. The media is suggesting that Trump is having a greater impact on world events in his first 40 days as PEOTUS than Obama had during his entire eight years in office.

Wednesday Morning Links -- December 30, 2015

Not even OPEC can fix oil glut, The Wall Street Journal. A nice little story with a nice graphic. Some data points from the article:

• Producers in Russia, Brazil and Norway pumped more oil in 2015 than the closely watched forecasters International Energy Agency and Energy Information Administration had projected. Meanwhile, oil-field investments made years ago when prices were higher are set to begin producing, even as exploration-and-drilling projects scheduled to bear fruit in the coming decades are being delayed or canceled outright.
• Global oil production increased by 2.28 million barrels a day, or 2.4%, in 2015. OPEC and the U.S. account for most of the growth, but the rest has come from Brazil, China, Canada, Russia and elsewhere. The EIA expects global output to grow by 250,000 barrels a day, or 0.3%, in 2016.
• "The idea that OPEC and the other large oil producers like Russia would reduce output at these lower prices is misguided,” said John Brynjolfsson, chief investment officer of Armored Wolf, which manages money as part of a family office. “For a couple of years to come, output will exceed demand.”
• Some money managers disagree. Bullish investors believe that non-OPEC supply could fall sharply in 2016, spurring a rebound in prices by year-end. Large producers faced pressure to cut spending even before oil prices plunged, and the pace of spending cuts accelerated in 2015. Producers delayed or canceled about 13 million barrels a day worth of oil output in the past five years, equal to about 14% of current global production, including 5 million barrels a day that would have been produced by 2020 deferred due to low prices, according to energy-focused investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.
• “Demand is growing and supply is reducing,” said Tim Guinness, chief investment officer of Guinness Atkinson Asset Management Inc., which manages $300 million in energy-equity investments. Mr. Guinness said he expects to see Brent oil prices at $75 a barrel by the end of 2016. “The world was out of balance. It’s now coming back into balance.”
• U.S. production fell from 9.6 million barrels a day in April 2015, a 43-year peak, to 9.2 million barrels a day in November, according to EIA estimates. The decline has been slower than many expected at the beginning of the year. The EIA predicts U.S. output will fall to 8.5 million barrels a day in September 2016 before increasing again.

Much, much more at the linked story.

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Stating The Obvious

The Fiscal Times has another story on the failure of ObamaCare: Millie Dent says ObamaCare hasn't made health care affordable, according to another study. Some data points:

• The study found that the median single enrollee earning between $35,310 and $47,080, or a family of four earning between $72,750 and $97,000, will spend almost 15 percent of their income next year on Obamacare insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs in 2016, even with federal government subsidies. The percentages increase for those with worsening health and those over age 45. 
• And 10 percent of people in the income range the Urban Institute researchers looked at, between 200 percent and 500 percent of the federal poverty level, will spend more than 21 percent of their income on health care costs.
• The health care law created penalties for not signing up, and those fees rose this year and will climb again next year. But once the penalties flatten, if the cost of health care continues growing, more people will face financial pressure to drop out of the exchange, Buetggens says: “It’s going to be a gradual decrease in enrollment, but it’s definitely real.”

What amazes me are all the articles talking about financial headwinds for US consumers and ObamaCare is never mentioned.  But 15% of American's income will be spent on ObamaCare. Another 15% on federal income taxes, and probably another 10% on state, local (property), and sales taxes. The good news: a family of four with two cars, with annual mileage of 12,000 miles on each, at 25 mpg, gasoline at $2.00 / gallon works out to about $36/week -- the price of one meal at McDonalds for the family of four.

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Into The Big Leagues

I'm probably wrong on this, but it's my impression that the Lundberg Survey rose to prominence during the OPEC embargo. Dan Lundberg founded the survey in 1950 but I don't think it became a household word until the 1970's and 1980's with the OPEC embargoes and other geopolitical events affecting the price of gasoline.

I think we are seeing the same thing with RBN Energy. I think RBN Energy started out as a free
digital newsletter back in 2011 or thereabouts. It has since become a leader in in-depth analysis of the American oil and gas industry. I'm starting to see RBN Energy quoted in more and more news stories about the oil and gas industry.

Here is just one example of many: in a Rigzone story today, RBN Energy LLC analyst Sandy Fielden was quoted from a December 27, 2015, report.

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Chinese Energy Growth Forecast For 2016

Some argue that the slump in oil prices in 2015 had less to do with an increased supply of oil and more to do with the unexpected slowdown in demand for oil in China. If so, this might be good news for the oil and gas industry. China expects its energy consumption to grow in 2016. Some data points from the Reuters/Rigzone article:

• China's apparent demand for crude oil will reach 550 million tonnes (11 million barrels per day) and apparent demand for natural gas will hit 205 billion cubic metres, Nur Bekri, head of the National Energy Administration (NEA), said, according to Xinhua.
• Electricity consumption will rise to 5.7 trillion kilowatt-hours and coal consumption will be 3.96 billion tonnes.
• Crude oil production is expected to rise to 220 million tonnes (4.4 million bpd), even as global prices near 11-year lows. Natural gas production, including shale gas and coal-bed methane, is expected to rise to 140 bcm, he said.

Back-of-the-envelope:

• crude oil demand at 11 million bopd vs domestic production of 4.4 million bopd leaves a delta of about 7 million bopd
• natural gas demand at 205 billion cubic meters vs domestic production of 140 bcm leaves a delta of about 65 bcm

I can't get my hands around "65 bcm of natural gas," so I turned to Iowa State University to provide me the conversion factor:

• 1 billion cubic meters NG = 6.29 million barrels of oil equivalent

So, 65 x 6.29 = 408 million boe / 365 or another 1.1 million boepd delta.

So, I assume, we're looking at about 8 million boepd Chinese import demand.

For 2015:

• China imported 330 million tonnes (6.6 million bpd) of oil and 60 bcm of natural gas. Installed energy capacity will have reached 1.47 billion kilowatts, up 7.5 percent.

Coal:

• By the way, the Chinese China will stop approving coal mining projects for three years starting in March, and aims to close more than 1,000 mines that have "lagged behind." 
• coal consumption for 2015: 3.96 billion tonnes (tonnes with "es" on the end)
• as a percentage of energy contribution, coal will fall to 62.2% (in 2016) from 64.4% (in 2015)

Intermittent energy will make up 13.2 percent of primary energy needs in 2016, up from 12 percent in 2015, according to the linked article. 

More Movement In The Global Oil And Gas Industry -- December 22, 2015

Yesterday it was announced that BP would buy all of Devon's assets in the San Juan Basin in New Mexico. Today is it being announced the COP is leaving Russia after 25 years. From Seeking Alpha:

• ConocoPhillips is exiting Russia after more than 25 years as foreign investors are hit by Russian political tensions and the tumble in oil prices, Financial Times reports
• COP confirms it sold its 50% stake in its Polar Lights JV with Rosneft, which also sold its stake in a deal that valued the business at $150M-$200M
• Polar Lights, registered in 1992, made COP the largest foreign investor in the Russian energy sector in the early 1990s, but the venture became ensnared in domestic Russian politics, and its tax bill increased sharply; COP first announced it would seek a buyer for its stake last year

Only one reason COP did this, but I will let the readers speculate.

Meanwhile, Gazprom Neft is tweeting: 

Russia to stand by flat crude oil output strategy; 'ready for battle', according to Gazprom Neft CEO.

More and more pressure on President Putin, which takes us to this next article sent in by a reader.

I think I've seen this article before, or another iteration of it, somewhere else, and, in fact, I may have posted it somewhere. From oiljobsnd:

It won’t be long now, until the U.S. Shale Oil Industry will bankrupt Saudi Arabia, and claim victory against OPEC. The war isn’t over yet, but America has already won, it’s just a waiting game now.

On Friday, December 18th 2015, President Barack Obama officially signed off on ending the 40 year ban on the export of crude oil. President Obama basically signed the death certificate of OPEC. By passing this new law, the US Shale Oil Industry will crush OPEC in the long-term.

For years now Saudi Arabia has been a major powerhouse in the oil and gas industry. When you think Saudi Arabia, you think of oil. Most people assume OPEC is the one calling the shots and setting the oil prices, it’s not, it’s Saudi Arabia and it’s been them this whole time. Why do you think the Bush Administration was in bed with them?

For the last few decades Saudi Arabia has printed money faster than they can pump oil, and they pump a tremendous amount of oil. When the markets swung up and down, it was due to the Saudi’s actions. Saudi Arabia has been the muscle in the oil industry for the longest time, until US operators cracked the shale oil code.

Much, much more at the link.

Huge Natural Gas Discovery In the Chinese Sichuan Basin -- Could Meet Chinese Demand For Two Years; California Drought, Meanwhile, Might Stymie Fracking -- CNBC

PennEnergy is reporting:

Chinese oil and gas company PetroChina recently uncovered one of the biggest gas discoveries in more than a decade in the Sichuan basin, which is significant for a nation trying to wean off natural gas imports, Reuters reported. Parent company China National Petroleum Corporation said the latest find, which includes 308.2 billion cubic meters of recoverable gas, is "set to provide abundant gas resources to the national gas grids," according to CNPC in a report.

Meanwhile, the California drought might stymie fracking:

California fracking opponents aiming to stop development of massive state oil reserves are focusing their drive this year around the state's record-breaking drought, arguing oil production would suck sorely needed water from farms and homes.

California Rep. Marc Levine told Reuters last week that he will co-author an upcoming bill that would place a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in the state, and said he will use the drought, which could be the state's worst ever, to bolster his position.

"The drought is a game changer on fracking," Levine said. "We have to decide what our most precious commodity is—water or oil? This is the year to make the case that it's water."

I've talked about this on more than one occasion. I think California is going to be a very tough state to frack.

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Last night, in bed, while reviewing the blog, I was quite disappointed. I hadn't posted a video in quite some time. Since the iPad won't multi-task -- at least not my version -- I need to have at least one video on each page. So, I have to catch up.

I recently posted another video of this song, but never too often:

It Never Rains In California, Albert Hammond

CNOOC Ltd To Examine LNG Development In British Columbia, Canada Through Nexen

CNOOC Ltd to examine LNG development in British Columbia, Canada through Nexen:

Co announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary Nexen Energy ULC (Nexen), has entered into an exclusive agreement with the Government of British Columbia, Canada to examine the viability of constructing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant and export terminal at Grassy Point near Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada. The agreement with the Government of British Columbia, represented by the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, grants Nexen and its joint venture partners INPEX Corporation and JGC Corporation, the exclusive right to pursue long-term access to Crown land at Grassy Point.

Related posts:

• http://themilliondollarway.blogspot.com/2013/02/third-lng-export-license-given-out-by.html
• Platts is reporting the growing rift between British Columbia and Alberta over oil shipments, rail and pipeline.   
• US and Canada vie for big NG export projects
• http://themilliondollarway.blogspot.com/2013/06/increasing-interest-in-using-lng-in.html

China Going Back To The Drawing Board On Shale

This is a very interesting story -- I have had several posts over the past two years regarding this; it seems to be gaining traction -- the Bakken and the Eagle Ford are somewhat unique. Reuters is reporting that China is going back to the drawing board as shale gas fails to flow.

Can anyone say King Coal?

This is a 5-page internet article, not to be missed:

China has gone back to the drawing board on how to develop what could be the world's largest shale gas reserves after attempts to stimulate investment and engineer an energy revolution brought little progress in the gas fields.

Beijing has struggled to find a way to emulate the frenetic exploration and production activity of the shale gas boom in the United States, and the latest setback makes reaching even a modest 2015 output target of 6.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) unlikely.

This is only a fraction of the 224 bcm of shale gas the United States produced in 2011, and would amount to just 6 percent of China's total current output of natural gas.

But even that target is under threat as an eclectic mix of new participants in the sector drag their heels on development, while China's biggest energy companies prioritise spending on other oil and gas projects.

Frustrated with slow progress on shale from state energy giants PetroChina and Sinopec Corp, China in late 2012 encouraged a broad range of companies - including a property developer and a grains trader - to bid in its second shale gas auction.

Not one of the 16 firms that won exploration rights had ever drilled a gas well. But they did promise to spend at least $2 billion over three years to pump gas from shale.

And it ends with:

One of the challenges Chinese firms have struggled to overcome is how to adapt shale technology developed in the U.S. to China's geology. Chinese shale formations tend to be deeper than those that have provided the energy that has ended U.S. dependence on imported gas and slashed reliance on imported oil.

"A realistic way to look at China's shale gas is that it is a very rich resource, but one that needs a long process to unlock," said the government official. China took nearly 20 years to embark on full-fledged development of its conventional gas fields, he said, and shale may be similar.

Natural Gas Transportation: Some Random Data Points

Some random data points.

Price of natural gas to consumer for transportation (rounding):

• US: $3.50 / million BTU
• China: $14.40 / million BTU

Number of vehicles using natural gas (rounding):

• US: 135,000
• China: 1.5 million (up 50% year-over-year, 2012)

It is what it is.

The nice thing is that investors don't have to be upset the US is not so forward thinking. Investors can easily invest in companies that trade on the New York stock exchanges and are doing energy business in China.

See the linked article for some suggestions.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions on anything you read here or what you think you may have read here.