China Unlikely to Become Shale Gas Superpower China is estimated to hold the largest technically recoverable shale gas reserves globally, yet extracting it is too complicated and costly to replicate the US shale gas revolution. China, the largest energy consumer in the world, hopes to become less dependent on energy imports. However, Beijing needs to increase its domestic volumes of energy resources in order to sustain its growing economy. Concomitantly, China has to address the environmental implications of using coal. Shale gas extraction is seen as a viable substitute to alleviate such problems as evident from the US experience. The United States, once dependent on energy imports, has been transformed into a major energy superpower following the shale gas revolution. In 2013, the US Energy Information Administration issued a report stating China has 1,115 trillion cubic feet of shale gas, twice as much as the US. It […]