Reuters: China Struggles to Find Prospective Blocks for Third Shale Auction

China is struggling to find attractive shale gas blocks to offer in a third auction of concessions, government sources said, increasing the sense that the country's output potential may be overblown.

Some 400 wells have been drilled and geological surveys conducted in blocks awarded in China's first two exploration auctions, yet the world's top energy user has only one large shale find and few international investors in the sector.

Last year, despite potentially holding the largest technically recoverable shale gas reserves, complex geology, water scarcity and high drilling costs led Beijing to more than halve its 2020 output target to 30 billion cubic metres (bcm), or 18 percent China's current demand.

Now, the Ministry of Land and Resources' (MLR) expected third auction may be held up. MORE