PetroChina Needs Time on Shale Gas, Looks Abroad

PetroChina Co. (857) may take five years to figure out ways to unlock the world’s largest natural-gas reserves trapped in shale rock, meaning China must keep buying overseas energy assets to fuel the second-biggest economy.  “We still have a long way to go in turning possible shale resources into recoverable reserves,” Zhou Mingchun, chief financial officer at China’s largest oil and gas company, said in an interview in Beijing. PetroChina will pursue energy assets “wherever and whenever they become available.”  China, estimated to hold triple the shale reserves of the U.S., has yet to produce the fuel commercially because its drillers lack technology and face tougher geology. Explorers including Cnooc Ltd. (883) have bid for $100 billion of energy assets from Australia to Canada since 2008, including so-called unconventional resources, to boost reserves and gain expertise.