Nama : Sokhiful Muzaki
NIM : 1311603
Semester : II (dua)
China Takes
On Big Risks in Its Push for Shale Gas
Chinese
Fireball Mystery
China’s largest energy company has
made the country’s first commercially viable shale gas discovery, but the path
to energy independence is fraught with risks, as one town has seen first-hand.
JIAOSHIZHEN, China — Residents of
this isolated mountain valley of terraced cornfields were just going to sleep
last April when they were jolted by an enormous roar, followed by a tower of
flames. A shock wave rolled across the valley, rattling windows in farmhouses
and village shops, and a mysterious, pungent gas swiftly pervaded homes.
“It was so scary — everyone who had
a car fled the village and the rest of us without cars just stayed and waited
to die,” said Zhang Mengsu, a hardware store owner.
All too quickly, residents realized
the source of the midnight fireball: a shale gas drilling rig in their tiny
rural hamlet.
This verdant valley represents the
latest frontier in the worldwide hunt for shale gas retrievable by the
technology of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. It is a drilling boom that has
upended the energy industry and spurred billions of dollars of investment.
Like the United States and Europe, China wants to wean itself from its
dependence on energy imports — and in Jiaoshizhen, the Chinese energy giant Sinopec
says it has made the country’s first commercially viable shale gas discovery.
Its efforts could also help address another urgent issue, as Beijing looks to
curb an overwhelming reliance on coal that has blackened skies and made China
the largest contributor to global warming.
Huge drilling projects can be seen
embedded into farm land outside of Fuling, China. Shale gas has been discovered
in the region. Credit Jonah M. Kessel for The New York Times
But the path to energy independence
and a cleaner fossil fuel is fraught with potential pitfalls. Threats to
workplace safety, public health and the environment all loom large in the shale
gas debate — and the question is whether those short-term risks threaten to
undermine China’s long-term goal.
The energy industry around the world
has faced criticism about the economic viability of vast shale projects and the
environmental impact of the fracking process. But interviews with residents of
six hamlets here where drilling is being done, as well as with executives and
experts in Beijing, the United States and Europe, suggest that China’s search
poses even greater challenges.
In China, companies must drill two
to three times as deep as in the United States, making the process
significantly more expensive, noisier and potentially more dangerous. Chinese
energy giants also operate in strict secrecy; they rarely engage with local
communities, and accidents claim a high death toll.
The still-disputed incident in
Jiaoshizhen has raised serious concerns among its residents.
Villagers said that employees at the
time told them that eight workers died when the rig exploded that night.
Sinopec officials and village leaders then ordered residents not to discuss the
event, according to the villagers. Now villagers complain of fouled streams and
polluted fields.
“There was a huge ball of fire,”
said Liu Jiazhen, a mustard greens farmer with three children who lives a
five-minute walk from the site. “The managers here all raced for their lives up
the hill.”
Ms. Liu said that the flames rose
higher than the pines on a nearby ridge, covering the steel frame of the rig,
which is nearly 100 feet high. The flames burned for hours, she said.
Sinopec describes the incident as a
controlled flaring of gas and denies that anybody died. While the company would
not speak in detail about its shale projects, Sinopec said it ran its
operations safely and without harm to the environment.
Li Chunguang, the president of
Sinopec, said in an interview in late March that nothing had gone wrong in
Jiaoshizhen. “There is no basis for this,” he said.
The bustling activity in Jiaoshizhen
indicates a significant find for Sinopec.
0 komentar:
Post a Comment