Shale oil is basically a scam. Yes it produces a ton of oil, but it is extremely capital intensive, to the point it will cost more to drill and produce than the oil is worth. But companies also can't just walk away because they need to have cash flow. So it's either build more debt and a slow death or walk away with smaller debt now. If you want to look at private corporate debt, no Chinese company can even approach the likes of shale oil companies.
O ya and it's terrible for creating earth quakes and contaminating ground water.
I hope China doesn't go down that route even when desperate
It is a scam indeed. From what I heard you need to put in 1 unit of energy in to get 2 units out.
In older oil explorations you put it 1 unit of energy and got more than 20 units of energy out.
You use lots of water, it pollutes the ground like heck, and induces earthquakes.
Most of the output is natgas, or other light volatiles, rather than oil, which are low density and need to the piped or liquefied. Even more expense.
Because of this natgas is often sold at negative price (you read that right) so it is simply flared and wasted away.
The oil wells last like a year or two before running out then you need to drill again elsewhere.
This wastes huge amounts of money and its only valued because in the current market there are several applications where it is hard to replace oil.
China is better off investing in electric vehicles I think. It also will help with inner city pollution.
They are already good enough in the mid range and high end range car sectors or in city buses.
Once solid-state batteries come out, with even better safety, less costs, and more density, it will only hasten the transition to electrics.
There is so much cheap gas elsewhere in Asia that China can basically use that to power a large part of the long range fleet as well if it comes to that.
Reducing the need for oil in the first place will mean China will become less sensitive to shocks in price.
