Friday, March 18, 2011

Here Come the Chinese (again): "PetroChina to add energy assets as Japan quake boosts demand" (PTR)

Don't let anyone kid you about "Green" China.
They are the largest in wind, they are also the largest in coal and for all I know yak dung.
China ain't stopping development because of a nuclear accident or CO2 molecules.
From Bloomberg:
PetroChina Co. pledged to accelerate acquisitions of energy assets and develop the country’s domestic natural gas resources as demand for the fuel rises following Japan’s nuclear reactor crisis.

“We will accelerate our global expansion,” PetroChina President Zhou Jiping said at a media briefing in Hong Kong yesterday, after the company posted a record quarterly profit. “The nuclear plant closure in Japan will boost its demand for oil and gas. That will have a pretty big impact as Japan is the world’s largest liquefied natural gas importer.”

Gas prices rose to a two-year high in Europe after the March 11 temblor crippled Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, triggering the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. PetroChina bought a $5.4 billion stake in Encana Corp.’s Cutbank Ridge shale-gas assets last month and is intensifying exploration to supply the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

“What is happening in Japan means China will use more fossil fuels in coming years than originally planned,” said Neil Beveridge, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in Hong Kong. “China will have to speed up the development of its gas resources at home and look for more resources overseas.”....MORE