Financial Times: China opens shale gas to foreign bidders

Beijing has invited foreign joint ventures to bid for shale gas exploration licences in a new tender process, a milestone policy change that will allow foreign energy companies to play a greater role in developing China’s rich potential reserves of shale gas.

China’s shale gas reserves are estimated to be the largest in the world, according to the US Energy Information Administration, and if they are successfully developed it could radically alter energy markets in the world’s biggest energy consumer. Shale gas is typically trapped in shale rock and extracted by cracking the rock open with highly pressurised water, a process known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”.  MORE