News » Society » Beijing No. 4 subway line delayed in rush hours over signal problem
News » Society » Beijing No. 4 subway line delayed in rush hours over signal problem |
- Beijing No. 4 subway line delayed in rush hours over signal problem
- Strong cold front to sweep China
- China hostages freed in Colombia
- VIDEO: Why Hong Kong wants to stay 'British'
- Chinese oil workers freed by Colombian rebel group
- 'Safe to drink' but maker of Jiugui issues an apology
- Organ donation scheme to be in operation by 2015
- Danger, house ahead ...
- Punishment given to 9 in death of student at party
- Hangzhou opens first subway line
- Woman detained for halting premier's car
- Patient hid his health status to obtain life-saving surgery
- Foreign capital rules eased
- China Brings Spending Plan to Bangkok
- Have You Heard…
- Growth Of Food Brands In China: Rabobank Report
- Shell vows $1b annual China investment
- Bird flu `epidemic' sparks chicken cull
- Netizens detained for inciting unrest
- Two netizens have been detained for inciting unrest in online postings, state media and a rights group said.
| Beijing No. 4 subway line delayed in rush hours over signal problem Posted: 22 Nov 2012 07:48 PM PST The No. 4 subway line, which runs through Beijing from south to north, resumed operation after a two-hour delay in the rush hours today due to signal problems, subway sources said. Problems occurred to the signal system between the line's Zhongguancun and Yuanmingyuan stops at around 7 am, which led to its partial closure to ensure the operation of other stretches. Subway staff solved the signal problem at 8:53 am to make the whole line return to normal. During the delay, other parts of the busy line were also affected with slow running and longer intervals, causing a jam of passengers in many stations. A passenger told Xinhua the train he rode only ran two stops in half an hour. Many had to take buses to work instead. |
| Strong cold front to sweep China Posted: 22 Nov 2012 07:38 PM PST CHINA'S meteorological authority forecast today that a cold front will bring strong winds and temperature drops to most parts of China in the next few days. The National Meteorological Center (NMC) warned that the cold front will move fast and affect a vast region across China, and people should take precautions against possible diseases, such as influenza. From Friday to Saturday, temperatures will drop by 4 to 8 degrees Celsius in most parts of north China, the southeast of northeastern China, regions along the Yellow and Huaihe rivers, as well as most regions in south China. Some regions will see temperatures drop by up to 10 degrees Celsius, the center said. Affected by the cold front, there will be only light rain in some southern parts of the country in the next two days. On Sunday, the southern end of the Yangtze River and central and northern parts of south China will experience moderate to heavy rain, according to the NMC. |
| China hostages freed in Colombia Posted: 22 Nov 2012 03:39 PM PST Marxist rebel group Farc free four Chinese oil workers they had held for 17 months, days after peace talks with the Colombian government begin. |
| VIDEO: Why Hong Kong wants to stay 'British' Posted: 22 Nov 2012 03:35 PM PST The former British colony Hong Kong was transferred to Chinese rule 15 years ago, but it still seems as British as ever. |
| Chinese oil workers freed by Colombian rebel group Posted: 22 Nov 2012 08:38 AM PST COLOMBIA'S main rebel group has released four Chinese oil workers in the same southern jungles where it kidnapped them 17 months ago, authorities said yesterday. The four Chinese nationals, three contractors and a translator, were the only foreigners known to be held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Their release around midnight on Wednesday to the International Red Cross comes three days after the FARC and Colombia's government began peace talks in Cuba. The rebels announced in February that they were halting all kidnapping and they insist they are holding no more captives, neither "political prisoners" nor "economic" hostages. The rebels, who have been fighting successive Colombian governments for a half century, have used kidnapping for political leverage and as a financing source. It was not known whether a ransom was paid for the four men. State police chief Colonel Carlos Vargas said they were released in good shape in a rural area of San Vicente del Caguan. Employed by the British company Emerald Energy, part of the China-based Sinochem Group, they were seized on June 8, 2011, while engaged in oil exploration work. The men's driver, who was released with their vehicle, said they were taken by at least seven FARC rebels. Authorities identified the freed men as Tang Guofu, 28, Zhao Hongwei, 36, Jian Mingfu, 46, and Jiang Shan, 24. They said Jiang was the translator. National police director General Jose Roberto Leon told reporters the liberation was coordinated by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Chinese government. China's ambassador Wang Xiaoyuan said in a radio interview last week that the embassy had never received any proof-of-life evidence for the four men and neither their relatives nor the company had contact with them.
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| 'Safe to drink' but maker of Jiugui issues an apology Posted: 22 Nov 2012 08:36 AM PST DRINKING 500 grams, or just over half a liter, of plasticizer-tainted Jiugui liquor a day is not harmful to health, quality watchdogs said yesterday in a statement that sparked disbelief online. "Have the watchdogs reached such a conclusion by drinking the problem liquor every day throughout their life?" was one comment on Weibo.com. Another said: "Never mind the plasticizer, drinking 500 grams of Chinese distilled liquor every day might cost you your life." However, despite the watchdogs' assurances, the Hunan Jiugui Liquor Co yesterday apologized to customers and investors following tests earlier this week that showed excessive levels of toxic chemicals in samples of its product. The listed company is to scrutinize every link in its transportation and packaging processes, determine the cause of the contamination and make rectifications, it said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said on Wednesday that tests conducted by its Hunan branch found that liquor samples from Jiugui contained a level of 1.04 milligrams of dibutyl phthalate (DBP), a kind of plasticizer, per kilogram. The figure is much higher than the 0.3 mg per kg standard, a regulatory limit set by the Ministry of Health in June 2011, Xinhua news agency reported. Xinhua said it had been 17 months since the China Alcoholic Drinks Association knew liquor products contained plasticizer, but that fact was only made public after media reports about Jiugui surfaced this week. Following those reports, the liquor company based in Hunan Province had said its products were safe and denied reports of excess plasticizers. It also said that the media reports had caused "confusion and misunderstanding" among its customers. It admitted that DBP had been found, but said the substance would not harm health, if it was drunk "properly." But it didn't define "properly" and there are no indications on its products of what is a recommended daily amount. According to CCTV and Xinhua, officials with the country's quality supervision administration, the health ministry and the national food safety evaluation center told reporters the potential harm of plasticizers depended on the amount consumed and over which period of time. Removed from sale The officials said they had studied the maximum amount of plasticizer substance a person could take - figures provided by the European Food Safety Bureau - and said it would be safe to drink 500 grams of plasticizer-tainted Jiugui liquor every day. Jiugui liquor products had been removed from sale in most supermarkets in Shanghai and other cities and provinces across the country by Tuesday. They were also being removed from online stores, including those on Taobao.com, after the test results were revealed. The name jiugui means an alcoholic in Chinese. But it is more likely to be translated literally according to the meaning of its Chinese characters - jiu for liquor and gui for ghost - after the plasticizer revelation. In a play on words, a Xinhua editorial yesterday was headlined: "Is there ghost in liquor?" Liu Xuejun, a food science professor at Jilin Agricultural University, told Xinhua there were two possible causes of excessive levels of plasticizers in liquor. They could leak from PVC tubes or vessels used for storage or transportation, or come from flavoring essence. |
| Organ donation scheme to be in operation by 2015 Posted: 22 Nov 2012 08:35 AM PST SINCE a pilot organ donation scheme was launched by the Red Cross Society of China in 2010, 38 hospitals have obtained 1,279 organs from 465 donors. South China's Guangdong Province had the largest number of donors - 100, Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu announced in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, on Wednesday, China News Service reported yesterday. Huang said the system would be in full swing in the next one or two years by which time China will be able to phase out its reliance on organs from executed prisoners. China passed a law in 2007 which strengthened supervision of organ transplants but it failed to solve problems such as questionable sources, an acute shortage of organs, and illegal organ transactions. Each year, about 1.5 million people are on the waiting list for transplants, but only about 10,000 can get one due to a lack of organs. Huang said that a cautious approach had been taken with the pilot scheme and it was in operation in only a tenth of the country's qualified hospitals. The system would eventually replace the practice of taking organs from executed prisoners after relevant policies and facilities were in place, he said. The trial adopted the criteria of donations after both cardiac death and brain death. Currently China has no legislation that covers brain death. Huang said organs from people whose hearts had stopped have shown better clinical effects than using executed prisoners' organs and showed similar effects to using organs from people declared brain dead, as was the practice in the West. At a meeting of the World Health Organization in 2005, Huang admitted for the first time that executed prisoners, with their prior consent, were the major source of organs in China. He told the meeting it was time for the country to move on and develop an ethical and sustainable organ donation system. Huang wrote in the March issue of The Lancet that China had 8.9 million potential organ donors in 2006, including 60,000 who died in traffic accidents. Huang said more education and campaigns would be launched to highlight the importance of organ donation. In his article, Huang also cited ethical and legal issues associated with transplants, including the use of so many organs from executed prisoners. "About 65 percent of transplant operations in China use organs from deceased donors, more 90 percent of whom were executed prisoners," he wrote. |
| Posted: 22 Nov 2012 08:31 AM PST A car drives around an isolated house in the middle of an almost-completed expressway in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, yesterday. The owner of the house, Luo Baogen, has refused to move to make way for the new road. Luo, 67, and his 65-year-old wife still live in the house to prevent it from being demolished after they rejected a compensation offer of 260,000 yuan (US$41,718) plus two small building sites as far from enough to cover the several hundreds of thousands of yuan they said they had spent in renovating the building. The couple are able to continue with their lives as they have an adequate supply of electricity and water. Their cable TV is also still functioning well. But they said would-be burglars were a problem because the house is no longer protected by outside walls. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Punishment given to 9 in death of student at party Posted: 22 Nov 2012 08:30 AM PST SIX male teachers with a privately owned vocational school in Qingdao City, Shandong Province, were sacked or suspended in the wake of the death of a female student during a late-night drinking party, the school said late Wednesday. Also, three administrators at Qingdao Qiushi Vocational School were given warnings by the province's education bureau in the case. The teachers had invited 19-year-old Liu Xiao'ao and four other students, two male and two female, for late-night beers at a restaurant on October 27. Nine of them consumed 48 bottles of beer, police said. Liu was very drunk and accidentally fell from a bathroom window on the fourth floor of the restaurant, Qingdao police said in a report released this week. The police ruled out homicide, which many people posting on Weibo suspected was the cause. Liu's family has received 600,000 yuan (US$96,300) in compensation from the local government. Officials said they will try to recover that amount - 360,000 yuan from the school and 240,000 yuan from the restaurant. Though Liu's father questioned the motives of the six male teachers, the school insisted it was a just accident. "It is a very normal incident. Why are so many people paying so much attention?" a school official said. |
| Hangzhou opens first subway line Posted: 22 Nov 2012 08:29 AM PST HANGZHOU'S first Metro line will open officially tomorrow with a total length of 48 kilometers, the operators announced yesterday. Tickets will be sold at Metro stops as of 2:30pm. Metro Line 1 is built in a "Y" shape with 31 stops. It takes less than 70 minutes to transport passengers from the southern to the northern part of Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province. The Metro trains make 100 round-trips a day, and the capacity is 287,000 passengers per day. Fares range from 2 yuan (32 US cents) to 8 yuan. The trains will run from 6:30am to 8:30pm at first, with the interval between trains at about 9.5 minutes. Plans are to extend the hours to 10pm in three or four months, then to 10:30pm. Construction of the Metro line started in 2007, with a cost of about 22 billion yuan. The line was expected to open last year, but "difficulties" delayed the opening, said Shao Jianming, chairman of board of Hangzhou Metro Group. "Considering Hangzhou is a city with many lakes and rivers, there are many geological problems we need to solve," he said. The Metro opened on a trial basis from Sunday to Wednesday, giving free rides to 220,000 people. By 2020, Hangzhou is expected to have 10 Metro lines reaching urban and suburban areas. Signage is found confusing for English speakers. The Metro's Chengzhan stop is very close to the city's main railway station, Hangzhou Chengzhan Railway Station. The sign at the entrance to the Metro at that stop says "To Train." But to get to the city's railway station, passengers must leave the Metro station and walk two minutes. |
| Woman detained for halting premier's car Posted: 22 Nov 2012 08:28 AM PST A WOMAN in a quake-hit county in southwest China who with other villages knelt to stop Premier Wen Jiabao's motorcade was detained for disturbing the public order, then released a day later. The accusation was made against Liang Yonglan and three other villagers who complained to Wen about the small amount of compensation villagers were given when their land was taken by the local government. Wen visited the mountainous region of Yiliang County in Yunnan Province to give his condolences on September 8, after the area was hit by back-to-back earthquakes. They knelt at a crossroads, forcing the 30-vehicle motorcade to stop and causing a 20-minute traffic jam, which "posed severe political and social influences," police said. The other three men weren't at home during Monday's police raid, so only Liang was taken away for the seven-day administrative detention. The 29-year-old was released on Tuesday after her relatives paid 1,000 yuan (US$160) to bail her out, The Beijing News reported yesterday. She dismissed the police accusations, saying she just talked to Wen for no more than five minutes. Police in Zhaotong City, which administers the county, were investigating whether county police gave the woman a proper punishment. Yiliang County took 53 hectares of farmland belonging to 2,000 villagers three years ago for industrial development. Each villager got only 28,000 yuan in compensation, almost 50,000 yuan lower than the amount paid in a nearby village, Liang told the paper. Liang said dozens of villagers, not just four, waited for the premier's arrival that day. She said she followed several others who knelt when Wen's car was about to pass. "No one ever tried to stop us. The premier and his guards all got out of the car when they saw us. He told us, 'Since you trust me and tell me so many details, I will be sure to give you a satisfying response.' He also shook hands with us," she said. Liang said she never expected more than 10 officers would storm her house nearly two months after Wen's visit. "I didn't know whether I violated rules, but I couldn't accept police allegations," she said. A series of earthquakes hit southwest China in September, killing 81 people, damaging many thousands of buildings and causing direct economic losses of 3.69 billion yuan in Yunnan and neighboring Guizhou provinces. |
| Patient hid his health status to obtain life-saving surgery Posted: 22 Nov 2012 08:00 AM PST HEALTH authorities in the northern city of Tianjin are investigating the case of a lung cancer patient who was refused treatment at his local hospital because he was HIV positive. He is said to have hidden his condition to have surgery at another hospital. Xiao Feng, 25, said he was denied lung cancer surgery at the Tianjin Cancer Hospital after his HIV status was detected. Xiao eventually got the surgery in another Tianjin hospital on November 12 after concealing his condition. The surgery was successful and he is recovering at home. He said his family informed medical staff about his infection soon after the surgery was finished. The Tianjin Health Bureau yesterday confirmed that the cancer hospital had refused to treat the patient and the bureau was determining which hospital officials were responsible. The bureau also checked the second hospital's medical staff and in-hospital infection control. It said yesterday that the medical staff's personal protection, surgery disinfection, patient nursing and processing of medical waste were all in line with regulations. No one had been infected as a result of the surgery. The bureau said hospitals and medical staff must offer proper treatment to people with HIV/AIDS, while HIV carriers and AIDS patients should inform doctors about their infection and shouldn't keep the infection from medical staff to prevent spreading HIV/AIDS. Vice Premier Li Keqiang has instructed the Ministry of Health to guarantee the right to medical treatment of people living with HIV, according to a notice posted on the ministry's website on Wednesday night. Li also instructed the ministry by phone that people with HIV should not be discriminated against, stressing that work should be done to guarantee the safety of doctors and nurses treating HIV-positive people, according to the notice. Wu Hong, vice director of the Shanghai Health Bureau's hospital management department, said the city has regulations about receiving HIV-positive patients. "Each patient in Shanghai hospitals will undergo tests on hepatitis B and HIV before surgery," Wu said yesterday. "If the patient is detected with HIV, he or she will be sent to a hospital designated for infectious diseases. If the designated hospital can't offer the treatment the patient needs, relevant experts from other hospitals will go to the infectious disease hospital to carry out the treatment. "Professional hospitals have a stronger ability on infectious disease prevention and control. They can offer better protection to patients and medical staff. No HIV-positive patients will be denied treatment in the city." He added: "HIV-positive patients should inform medical staff about their infection to protect medical staff and ensure proper medical practice." |
| Posted: 22 Nov 2012 08:32 AM PST  Source: China Daily via china.org.cn China will clear the way for foreign investors' capital to flow in and out of the country more easily by waiving and simplifying regulations, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, or SAFE, said on Wednesday. Starting on Dec 17, foreign investors won't need to get regulatory approval to open bank accounts, remit profits, and transfer money between different domestic accounts, it said. And the limits on the number of foreign-currency accounts and the amount of money that can be transferred will also be loosened, it added. "We're making some progress in further opening up the capital account. Maybe it can't be called a 'big leap', but it shows that the government is determined to make the financial system more free and open, although it faces capital inflow challenges," said Guo Tianyong, a finance professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing. SAFE said it will cancel 35 rules on regulatory approval and simplify 14 others. "The move is clearly designed to encourage long-term capital inflows, especially when short-term money flows are volatile," said Joy Yang, chief Greater China economist at Mirae Asset Securities (HK) Ltd, quoted by Bloomberg. In October, foreign direct investment in China declined for the 11th time in 12 months. In the first 10 months, it went down nearly 3.5 percent, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday. Analysts said that short-term speculative capital inflows have increased in recent months and drove the yuan to appreciate to record highs for several consecutive days. However, the recent figures don't prove that the capital inflow pressure on China is significantly increasing, SAFE said. Individuals and companies sold $125 billion of foreign currency through banks and bought $117.2 billion last month, leaving a net sale of $7.8 billion, according to data released by SAFE on Wednesday. In October, the forward contracts of bank clients showed a net purchase of $600 million of foreign currency, it said. An improvement in international financial markets coupled with China's relatively rapid economic growth will make it easier for the country to attract long-term and stable capital inflows, while uncertainty in the global economy and unstable market sentiment might cause more short-term volatility, SAFE said. It added that as domestic companies continue to expand overseas, capital outflows are expected to increase in the future. The move to facilitate capital flows related to direct investment came the day after Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank governor, vowed to improve capital account convertibility. The validity of capital controls has been declining as financial opening-up deepens, and China needs to further open up its capital account by extending convertibility for certain transactions and individuals, Zhou said on Tuesday. Convertibility for direct financing, direct investment and credit operations should be further facilitated, Zhou said. |
| China Brings Spending Plan to Bangkok Posted: 22 Nov 2012 08:42 AM PST  Source: Wall Street Journal by James Hookway BANGKOK—China's Premier Wen Jiabao brought the prospect of more infrastructure spending to Thailand, just a day after a regional summit in Cambodia ended in acrimony over how the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations should approach its members' territorial disputes with Beijing. Among other things, Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said she had asked China to invest in a $50 billion deep-sea port industrial zone which Thailand has been helping to develop with the Myanmar government in Dawei, southern Myanmar, as well as flood prevention and railway projects. Ms. Yingluck also said China had signed a tentative agreement to buy some of Thailand's large stockpiles of rice, the result of a multibillion-dollar subsidy to support Thailand's rural economy. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said the disbursement of aid to Asean countries is designed to narrow the economic gap between wealthier members, such as Singapore and Malaysia, and impoverished nations, such as Laos, Myanmar and, especially, Cambodia. Security analysts said Cambodia helped serve China's interests earlier this week by claiming that the Asean nations had agreed not take an international approach to issues related to the South China Sea, even while several member states were urging to bring in the U.S. and other regional powers into a wider discussion. The end result: A split between the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Brunei, which favor broader discussion, and Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand—effectively preventing Asean from developing a louder, clearer voice in negotiating with China as a single block. "China has effectively proven that it intends to sustain passive-aggressive pressure to weaken any unified Asean position on the South China Sea," said Ernest Bower at the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington. Thailand, a close China ally, laid on a lavish welcome for Mr. Wen just a few days after U.S. President Barack Obama visited Bangkok to help strengthen Washington's relations with Thailand. Some analysts suggest U.S.'s re-engagement in East Asia under the Obama administration is amplifying tensions between the Asean members that are close to China and those that are wary of Beijing's growing clout. "I think the Philippines and Vietnam are particularly concerned about territorial claims in the South China Sea and that potentially puts them at loggerheads with some of the other countries, such as Cambodia," said Sarah McDowall, senior Asia-Pacific analyst at IHS Global Insight in London. This leaves Asean struggling to find a cohesive voice. The trade bloc was founded during the Cold War as a united front against Communism in East Asia, but later transformed into a wildly diverse trade bloc. For years it was at the hub of trade negotiations in Asia and beyond. But now, a broader range of trade agreements are growing up around it, including the China-driven Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which excludes the U.S. and other countries in the Americas, and the U.S.-sponsored Trans-Pacific Partnership. "If Asean doesn't speak with one voice, then it won't be taken seriously by other players, and I think some members are very annoyed with Cambodia for causing this," said Ian Storey at the Singapore-based Institute for Southeast Asian Studies. Cambodia's turn as chair of the group will end this year. In 2013 the tiny, oil rich sultanate of Brunei is taking over the chairmanship of Asean, with the likelihood, Mr. Storey says, that the territory disputes will find a wider audience. |
| Posted: 22 Nov 2012 08:29 AM PST Have You Heard… |
| Growth Of Food Brands In China: Rabobank Report Posted: 22 Nov 2012 08:35 AM PST  Source: Rabobank NEW YORK, Nov. 20, 2012 — Rabobank has published a new research report on China's potential as a growth market for European and North American processed food brands, and the importance of distribution channels as the means of doing so. Rabobank analyst Ivan Choi says in the report, "The Chinese economic miracle is now part of business folklore and the conventional wisdom is that, if you are not operating in China already, then you have missed out on a massive economic opportunity. However, Rabobank believes that within the processed food sector, there are still opportunities for European and North American brands facing flat growth at home. The key to winning over Chinese consumers is mastering distribution strategies." The confectionery market can be seen as a microcosm of the wider processed food industry in China and illustrates why it is not too late to enter the market. Annual growth in some areas of the country is at 10 percent, and despite market growth of 150 percent in the last decade, Rabobank believes high growth potential remains. Currently, the Chinese consume less than 1.2 kg of confectionery per person every year, against a global average of 2.1 kg, and buy mainly during the festive seasons, rather than all year round as in other markets. The key for foreign brands entering this market can be distilled down to tactics applied for specific sizes of cities within the country. China's 22 largest cities, which include Shanghai, Beijing and provincial capitals, offer a market of 54 million households, with a confectionery sector of Rmb37 billion (4.6 billion euro). Sophisticated urban consumers want premium confectionery products from North America and Europe, which benefit from the perception that they are higher quality and 'safe' product. In the big cities, foreign brands can also take advantage of modern retail networks. In the 3.1 billion euro market of smaller cities where networks are less established, local brands have a stronger position and the key to success is to choose the right distribution network. With a relatively low penetration of modern retailers, traditional stores are still where the majority of customers shop. It requires a large network of distributors and middlemen, or a large in-house distribution capacity, to get products into shops. Companies such as Nestle have successfully partnered with local brands that have established distribution networks, but an equity stake is the key to getting the most out of such deals. Ivan Choi says; "In China, where consumers have limited brand loyalty and distribution channels are fragmented, the main competitive differentiator is making products available to a wider selection of consumers. While distribution is the key to foreign companies' success in the confectionery sub segment, its importance is also evident in the broader processed foods sector. This is partly due to the Chinese retail market being so large and fragmented, with the top five retailers holding only a small percentage of the market." Brands must tailor their strategy to the different sub-markets within the country. Provinces in China vary greatly in their taste preferences, spoken languages and cultural practices as well as having different distribution chains. "Foreign confectionery brands should view different provinces as different markets and adjust products accordingly when contemplating a 'China' market entry strategy," Choi advises. In a market where consumers place brand name as a secondary decision factor, European and North American brands are in better position to trump local Chinese brands with their perceived premium brand position and safe quality image, but all this will hinge on these companies identifying their optimal distribution strategy to succeed in China. |
| Shell vows $1b annual China investment Posted: 22 Nov 2012 08:39 AM PST  Source: By Du Juan (China Daily) Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's largest oil company, said it will invest around $1 billion annually in its upstream businesses in China, a move based on the country's surging natural gas consumption. He said the company's investment scale will change depending on how successful its current projects are in the following years, as unconventional gas exploration is a "very complicated process" that takes longer time than conventional gas exploration. Cooperating with China National Petroleum Corp, Shell has two gas blocks, Jinqiu and Fushun-Yongchuan, in Sichuan province, an area rich in gas reserves. The company has drilled 13 out of 21 planned wells in Jinqiu, a project with a daily output of 110,000 cubic meters. It will complete the 21 wells by April 2013, the company said. In the Fushun-Yongchuan Block, the company is assessing whether its commercial development is a viable prospect. The block's 15-well drilling program is due to start by the end of 2012 or early next year. Last week, Shell announced that it will invest more than $20 billion globally in natural gas projects through 2015 as profits from extracting, processing and selling the fuel increase. Voser said the company's integrated-gas earnings have more than tripled in the past five years, reaching $9 billion in 2011, and its $20 billion investment will bring more opportunities. China's natural gas output has entered a period of soaring growth driven by growing demand in the nation, Yu Baocai, deputy general manager of CNPC, said last week at a conference in Shanghai. He estimated that China's natural gas output will reach 200 billion cu m before 2020. Its natural gas consumption is expected to reach around 148 billion cu m in 2012, up 13 percent year-on-year. China's natural gas imports for 2012 are due to reach 42.59 billion cu m, a growth rate of 35.69 percent year-on-year, according to statistics from energy information consultancy ICIS C1 Energy. China's liquid natural gas output and consumption are growing rapidly, said Huang Qing, a senior analyst at C1 Energy. "The average annual growth rate of LNG production in China from 2013 to 2015 will reach 48 percent," she said. Shell expects its annual LNG output to increase by 30 percent to around 29 million metric tons once it completes projects in Australia, the company said. Voser said the company will focus more on LNG demand in China's transportation market. Transportation is due to account for around 25 percent of China's LNG consumption in 2012, said C1 Energy. |
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