China should prioritize coalbed gas exploitation
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E-mail Xinhua, October 8, 2012
China's environmental problem is intensified as a result of coalbed gas emissions, said Pan, citing that the green house effect of coalbed gas is 21 times as much as that of carbon dioxide.
The Chinese government had planned a total of 5 billion cubic meters of coalbed gas to be surface mined in 2010. However, only 1.5 billion cubic meters was achieved, less than one third of the planned volume.
The U.S., as the second largest coal producer in the world, surface mines 60 billion cubic meters of coalbed gas annually, even though its annual coal output barely meets one third of China's.
Pan explained that, compared with shale gas exploitation, China has fewer technical challenges in coalbed gas exploitation.
coalbed gas is buried no deeper than 2,000 meters below the surface, while shale gas is averaged at 2,000 to 4,000 meters deep. In addition, coal seam is much easier to crack than shale terrane.
Another advantage of coal gas exploitation is that it can reduce gas explosions in mines, he said.
In 2011, China's mine gas explosions caused 533 deaths, topping the rest of the world, for which the main reason was that coalbed gas was not sufficiently extracted.
The Chinese government has set a target for 2015 to reduce the number of mine accidents and deaths by at least 40 percent from the level of 2010. Related research shows that if coalbed gas is explored ahead of coal mining, the explosion rate would drop by 70 to 85 percent.
Pan affirmed that promoting the development of unconventional natural gas is of significance to the country, as China still runs an unhealthy energy structure.
Statistics showed that coal accounts for 70 percent of the gross energy output and consumption in China. And the proportion of natural gas is 20 percentage points lower than the average level of the world, with unconventional gas even lower.
Full exploitation of coalbed gas would sharply improve the country's energy structure, he said.
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