中国美国各不同 开采天然气任重道远

SHOUYANG, China — Jin Peisheng, a drilling rig foreman, knows the challenges of trying to extract natural gas from a coal seam under the cornfields here in north-central China.

中国寿阳——钻井队长金培盛（音译）深知，从华北地区玉米地下的煤层中开采天然气是多么难的一件事。

Cracks in the subterranean coal are flooded with water that needs to be pumped out before the gas will emerge. The coal seams are so cold that gels injected into the well, which are meant to help release the gas, sometimes become gummy and block the flow instead. And there is constant concern about hitting the labyrinths of active coal mines that honeycomb the area.

地下煤层的裂缝里注满了水，需要都抽出来，才能让天然气得以释放。注入矿井的胶体本来是为了促进天然气的释放，但煤层实在是过于冰冷，使得胶体有时会变得太粘稠，反而挡住了天然气的流动。此外，人们常常会担心，这种做法会伤及这片区域里正在开采的迷宫般的地下煤矿。

“The big uncertainty is what’s underground — if there’s a tunnel, that’s a big danger. It would be dangerous for the miners,” Mr. Jin said.

“最不能确定的是地下有什么——如果有隧道，风险就大了。那对矿工来说是很危险的，”金培盛说。

Faced with severe air pollution from coal and a rising dependence on energy imports, China has been eager to follow the United States by rapidly increasing natural gas output. Replacing coal with natural gas has also been central to Beijing’s hopes to limit emissions of global warming gases in China, the world’s largest producer of carbon dioxide by a wide margin.

面对煤炭造成的严重大气污染，以及越来越依赖进口能源的现状，中国一直迫切希望效仿美国，迅速提高天然气产量。用天然气取代煤炭，也是中国控制温室气体排放的希望所在。中国是全球最大的二氧化碳排放国，排放量远高于其他国家。

But China’s ability to extract sufficient natural gas is in serious doubt. Despite heavy investment and strong government support, China’s natural gas production is growing at a slower pace than its decelerating economy. China’s production of natural gas increased just 6 percent last year and 4.4 percent in 2012.

然而，中国开采天然气的能力却深受质疑。尽管获得了大量投资，并得到了政府的大力扶持，中国天然气产量的增速仍然比不上不断放缓的经济增速。中国的天然气产量去年仅提高了6%，而2012年的增幅为2.2%。

China’s main problem is that shale gas production has fallen far short of expectations. That has left the country relying on alternative methods considered also-rans by American standards, like pumping natural gas from coal fields.

中国的主要问题是，页岩气产量与期望值相去甚远。于是，中国不得不依靠其他方法，比如从煤田中开采天然气，而这些方法以美国的标准来看都颇为落后。

Now, the Chinese government appears to be acknowledging the shortfall. Wu Xinxiong, the director of the National Energy Administration of China, unexpectedly said in a speech this summer that China’s target for domestic natural gas production in 2020 was only 30 billion cubic meters for shale gas and another 30 billion cubic meters for coal seam gas. Just two years ago, the National Energy Administration estimated that China would produce 60 billion to 100 billion cubic meters of shale gas alone by 2020.

如今，中国政府似乎承认了这方面的缺陷。国家能源局局长吴新雄今夏在演讲中令人意外地表示，中国2020年国内天然气生产的目标仅为，页岩气和煤层气各300亿立方米。就在两年前，国家能源局还曾估计，2020年，单是国内的页岩气产量就可以达到600亿到1000亿立方米。

If Mr. Wu’s forecast comes true, shale gas and coal field gas would each supply only 1 percent of China’s electricity generation needs in 2020.

如果吴新雄的预测成为了事实，那么在2020年，页岩气和煤层气分别只能满足中国1%的发电需求。

“If the population and economy keep growing, and extensive energy use continues, sustaining China’s energy supply will be hard,” Mr. Wu warned.

“在人口和经济总量不断增长的情况下，如果延续目前这种粗放的用能方式，我国的能源供应难以支持。”吴新雄说。

Gas production has been slow to rise despite energetic efforts by Beijing to make it financially attractive for energy companies, including direct subsidies for shale gas production. The Chinese government also announced on Aug. 13 that it would raise urban wholesale prices for natural gas at the end of the month by roughly 18 percent for industrial users.

尽管中国政府花大力气想要提高该领域在经济方面对能源企业的吸引力，包括对页岩气生产提供了直接的补贴，但天然气产量一直增长缓慢。中国政府8月13日宣布，非民用天然气的价格在月底将上调约18%。

With domestic supplies increasing slowly, China has been looking elsewhere. It agreed in May to buy gas from Russia under a 30-year, $400 billion deal. And it has begun importing liquefied natural gas from Qatar, Australia and Yemen.

由于国内供应增长乏力，中国已经把目光投向其他地方。今年5月，中国签署了一份价值4000亿美元（约合2.5万亿元人民币）的长达30年的合同，将从俄罗斯购买天然气。中国也已经开始从卡塔尔、澳大利亚和也门进口液化天然气。

The natural gas is sorely needed. Beijing plans to retire four coal-fired power plants by the end of this year and replace them with gas-fired plants in an effort to reduce air pollution.

中国对天然气的需求非常迫切。北京打算在今年年底之前将四家燃煤电厂改为燃气电厂，以减少大气污染。

But China does not have enough gas for a larger-scale conversion of power plants to gas. So the national government has already told smaller, less influential cities to stick with coal for now, and has discouraged businesses from investing heavily in gas-fired equipment.

然而，中国并没有足够的天然气来更大规模地推广燃气发电。因此，中国政府已经要求影响力较为有限的中小型城市，暂时继续使用燃煤发电，并劝诫企业不要大举投资燃气设备。

Gas had looked like one of the few remaining ways for China to reduce its addiction to coal. China’s nuclear power program slowed after Japan’s triple meltdown in Fukushima. Efforts to expand hydroelectric power have run into environmental concerns as well as the huge cost of resettling people from areas flooded when dams are built to make artificial lakes. Solar power and wind power are growing rapidly, but from small bases.

天然气一度看起来是中国减少对煤炭依赖的为数不多的办法之一。在日本福岛核电站发生三重熔融事故之后，中国的核能项目放慢了步伐。扩大水力发电的努力则遭遇了环保方面的担忧，而且为了造湖而修建的水坝会导致人员迁徙，从而带来巨大成本。太阳能和风能的确在迅速增长，但基础太过薄弱。

The revised figures from Mr. Wu represented China’s first official acknowledgment of what Western experts have been saying for many months: The country will not approach the success of the United States in shale gas anytime soon.

吴新雄对天然气产量预期的调整，意味着中国首次正式承认了西方国家的专家近段时间以来的说法：中国在短期内将无法触及美国在页岩气领域的那种成就。

Shale gas deposits lie much deeper in China than in the United States, which greatly increases drilling costs. Chinese shale also tends to be laden with clay and is much wetter than American shale, making it harder to crack the shale and release the gas through pumping liquids and sand underground, the process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

在中国，页岩气储备的埋藏位置要比美国深得多，大大增加了开采成本。中国的页岩层中还往往掺杂着大量泥土，且比美国的页岩层潮湿得多，因此更加难以通过向地下泵入液体和沙子来压裂页岩以释放其中的天然气——也就是所谓的“水力压裂”。

After 40 million years of powerful earthquakes as the Indian subcontinent plowed into southern Asia, the main shale gas seams in western China are jumbled underground, instead of lying flat like a stack of pancakes, as in the United States, said Jeff Layman, a partner in the Beijing office of Baker Botts, the big Houston energy law firm.

贝克博茨律师事务所(Baker Botts)北京办公室的合伙人雷介福(Jeff Layman)表示，经过4000万年印度次大陆挤入南亚板块带来的强烈地震，中国西部的主要页岩气层在地下混杂分布，而不是像美国那样，如同一摞薄饼平铺在地底。贝克博茨律师事务所是总部位于休斯顿的大型能源律所。

In March, Sinopec, a Chinese oil giant, announced the country’s first commercially viable shale gas deposit, located outside Chongqing, and predicted annual production would reach a hefty 10 billion cubic meters by 2017. But the company has released few details, prompting foreign energy experts to begin asking whether all of the seams are truly shale, although Sinopec insists they are.

今年3月，中国石油业巨头中石化宣布，发现了国内首个具有商业价值的页岩气田，并预测到2017年，这个位于重庆郊外的页岩气田的年产量将达到颇为可观的100亿立方米。但该公司没有透露多少相关细节，使得外国能源专家开始怀疑，是否所有矿层都是纯正的页岩层，尽管中石化坚称的确如此。

Neither Sinopec nor its rival, PetroChina, has announced any other large fields despite extensive drilling. Both of these state-controlled companies said in March that they were still drilling actively for shale gas in China even as they cut their worldwide exploration budgets for oil and gas after weak results.

虽然进行了大规模勘探，中石化及其竞争对手中石油都没有宣布发现了其他大型页岩气田。这两家国企均在3月表示，它们仍在积极地进行国内的页岩气勘探工作，即便因为收效甚微，它们削减了全球油气勘探的预算。

Sinopec and PetroChina, which will hold earnings conferences on Monday and Thursday, respectively, are targets of broad government inquiries into possible corruption, including in their contracts with outside vendors. This has made their executives reluctant to approve further shale drilling contracts, said a Chinese oil industry executive who insisted on anonymity because of the legal issues involved.

中石化和中石油将分别于下周一和周四发布财报。这两家企业目前是政府广泛调查的目标，涉及可能的腐败行为，包括它们与外部销售商签订的合同。一名中国石油业高管表示，有鉴于此，公司管理层不愿再批准开采页岩气的新合同。由于涉及法律问题，这名高管要求不具名。

China needs to develop better technology before tackling many of its shale deposits, said another executive, Yin Shenping, the chairman and chief executive of Recon Technology, a shale gas services company based in Beijing. “It’s obvious that the country has now decided to slow down the drilling process,” he said.

另一名高管——位于北京的页岩气服务公司研控科技的董事长兼首席执行官银燊平——表示，中国需要开发更先进的技术，才能对很多国内页岩气田进行开采。他说，“很明显，国家现在已经决定放缓开采过程。”

Lower expectations for shale gas have resulted in greater interest in another category of unconventional gas, so-called coal bed methane. In this process, natural gas is gathered by drilling into underground coal seams.

对页岩气的较低期望导致对另一种非常规天然气的兴趣上升，那就是煤层甲烷气。在这种工艺中，通过钻探地下煤层来采集天然气。

The United States, Australia and other countries have used this method for several decades. But they often tap the natural gas before coal extraction begins, to reduce the risk that gas will explode in coal mines.

在过去数十年中，美国和澳大利亚等国一直在使用这个方法。但它们通常在煤炭开采开始之前采集天然气，以减少煤矿中发生瓦斯爆炸的风险。

China’s dilemma is that many of its coal fields already have working mines. China has 13 percent of the world’s coal reserves but 47 percent of the world’s production. Many Chinese coal mine operators have opposed nearby coal bed methane production, fearing that pumping sand and chemicals into wells to liberate gas might have the unintended effect of driving gas into their mines.

中国面临的两难局面在于，很多矿区都已经有了经营中的煤矿。中国的煤炭储量占全世界的13%，但产量占47%。中国的很多煤矿经营者反对在附近开采煤层气，原因是担心向矿井里泵入沙子及化学品，从而释放煤层气的做法，可能会无意间令瓦斯流入矿井中。

The Chinese government has negotiated with mine operators and villages here in Shouyang, 220 miles southwest of Beijing, to authorize a large coal bed methane project, led by Far East Energy Corporation, based in Houston. Michael R. McElwrath, chief executive of Far East Energy, said he believed the project would improve coal field safety by removing explosive gas from subterranean seams.

为了批准一个大型煤层气项目，政府已经与寿阳的煤矿经营者及各村进行了谈判。该项目将由总部位于休斯顿的远东能源公司(Far East Energy Corporation)牵头开展。远东公司首席执行官迈克尔·R·麦克艾瑞思(Michael R. McElwrath)表示，他相信该项目能够去除地下煤层中的爆炸性气体，从而提高矿区的安全性。

But the Shouyang coal field is unusual within China because the coal is fairly permeable, allowing gas to flow underground. If there are no more discoveries of permeable coal, Mr. McElwrath said, “we will have a nice little project but the industry will not take off.”

但寿阳煤田的情况在中国并不常见，因为这里的煤层渗透性相当好，天然气能够在地下流动。麦克艾瑞思表示，如果不能发现更多渗透性好的煤田，“我们能开展一个非常棒的小项目，但这个行业不会崛起。”

Far East Energy faces its own issues. In June, the company announced that it had shut a quarter of its 160 wells for various reasons, such as gummy gels or a lack of gas-gathering pipelines; it plans to restart most of those wells later. “We are considering a variety of strategic transactions to fund the coming year’s drilling activities,” Mr. McElwrath said, declining to elaborate.

远东能源公司也有自己的问题。今年6月，公司宣布，出于胶体粘稠、缺少天然气采集管道等原因，已经关闭了四分之一的矿井。该公司共有160个矿井，计划稍后重启其中的大部分。麦克艾瑞思表示，“我们正在考虑各种战略性的交易，从而为明年的开采活动筹集资金。”但他拒绝详细说明。

Crews have been working here over the last several years, laboring in a countryside of yellow dirt so soft that even small streams cut steep-flanked gorges 50 feet deep or more. Some of the locally rented equipment uses designs seldom seen in the United States since World War II, an indication that China still lags in drilling rig technology. At each location, workers struggle with the many idiosyncrasies.

技术人员过去几年一直在这片农村地区工作。这里的黄土非常软，即使是一条小河，都能冲出50英尺（约合15米）甚至更深的陡峭河谷。公司在当地租赁的设备中，有一些使用的设计，二战以后在美国就很少见到了。这说明中国在钻井技术方面还非常落后。在每个开采地点，技术人员都需要应对很多独特的问题。

“In the United States, it comes to the surface easier,” said Robert Hockert, a longtime Wyoming shale gas and coal bed methane drilling manager who is now the China country manager for Far East Energy. “Here, you’ve got to work at it.”

远东能源公司中国区经理罗伯特·霍克特(Robert Hockert)曾经长期在怀俄明州管理页岩气和煤层气钻探作业。霍克特说，“在美国，天然气采上来比较容易。在这里，得努力开采才行。”