In a note released yesterday and cited by Reuters, Wood Mac said China will add almost 700 new wells by 2020 at three large fields, two of them operated by PetroChina and one by Sinopec, all in northwestern China. The energy consultancy has estimated the combined investment in the new production capacity at US$5.5 billion. Still, the production increase will be unable to catch up with soaring gas demand in the world’s third-largest consumer, the analysts warn. Beijing has a target of 30 billion cubic meters of shale gas for 2020, and it looks like even these investments won’t be enough to achieve it. This in its turn means that China will need to continue raising its LNG and pipeline gas imports after they hit a record last year amid the government’s efforts to curb pollution by cutting the use of coal for power generation. Overall gas production in […]