Shale gas extraction does not affect residential use

According to China Voices News and Newspaper Abstracts, there have been institutional doubts that shale gas mining may cause pollution to groundwater. The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Land and Resources stated that at present, China has been mining shale gas in many places and has not yet found any impact on local residents' drinking water and groundwater.

Research institutes have indicated that shale gas extraction may cause drinking water within a radius of 1 km around the gas well to be contaminated with methane, ethane and propane. According to Che Changbo, deputy director of the Department of Geological Exploration of the Ministry of Land and Resources, at present, shale gas exploitation in China has not yet found any impact on water resources.

Che Longbo: From the current point of view, these horizontal wells are under construction. A small number of horizontal well constructions are nearby and no difficulty is encountered. However, for a demonstration base like Fuling, the construction of more than 100 wells, the measures taken by them are: The concentration of water from the Wujiang River will not affect the water use of the local residents nor will it affect the water level of the local groundwater.

Che Longbo said that in the future it will be possible to solve the problem of water resources in shale gas exploitation from the root.

Bo Changbo: For example, exploration of water fracking or foam or other means, and scientists are also exploring.

Peng Qiming, director of the Department of Geological Exploration of the Ministry of Land and Resources, said that at present, China's shale gas development is still in its infancy, and exploration needs to be carried out in many areas.

The current breakthrough is limited to local marine strata within the Sichuan Basin. Other marine strata, as well as widely distributed terrestrial and sea-land interaction strata have not yet formed industrial production capacity. Some of the exploration and development core technologies are still not fully understood. Compared with conventional domestic oil and gas, the cost is high, the difficulty is high, and the benefits are low. Enterprises that have entered the field of shale gas exploration and development still need considerable time to accumulate technology, information, and experience.

As of the end of July 2014, China has set up a total of 54 shale gas exploration rights, with a total investment of 20 billion yuan. It is estimated that the shale gas production in 2014 will be 1.5 billion cubic meters. If the measures are properly implemented, the national shale gas production will be expected to reach 40-60 billion cubic meters by 2020, accounting for about one-fifth of the total natural gas production.