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AFX Europe (Focus): Royal Dutch/Shell confirms northeastern China oil shale reserve deal - report (ShellNews.net) 10 Dec 04

 

Dec 10, 2004

 

BEIJING (AFX) - Royal Dutch/Shell has agreed to conduct oil shale resource studies with Jilin's Bureau of Geological Exploration and Mineral Development in the northeastern Chinese province, the China Daily reported.

 

The paper said that if reserves are proved commercially viable, trial explorations will be launched and, if experiments are successful, commercial exploitation will follow.

 

Rising crude consumption and depleted domestic reserves have forced China to turn to alternative resources such as oil shale, a brittle rock that can be converted into petroleum.

 

Producing oil from shale is far more costly and requires more complicated technology than production from conventional oil reserves.

 

China has the fourth-largest oil shale deposits in the world after the US, Brazil and Russia, while Jilin province, with 17 bln tons, accounts for about 56 pct of the country's total, the paper added.

 

will.davies@xinhuafinance.com

 

wd/wpf

 


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