PetroChina share price rise hits daily limit after shale JV news

Venture set up to develop company's business in Chongqing

Shares of PetroChina Co Ltd rose by the daily limit on Thursday, following reports that the company has formed a joint venture to explore its shale gas projects in Chongqing Municipality, in Southwest China.

PetroChina, the country's largest oil and gas producer by output, saw its share price close at 9.21 yuan ($1.50) per share, up 10.04 percent, on Thursday, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 4.31 percent.

Analysts attributed the stock surge partly to PetroChina's increased participation in Chongqing's shale gas industry, which reportedly is estimated to contribute 80 percent to China's total shale gas exploration volumes this year.

Joining with SDIC Chongqing Shale Gas Development & Utilization Co, Sinochem Petroleum Exploration & Production Co, Chongqing Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources, PetroChina has set up a shale gas exploration company in Chongqing, according to a statement posted on the local government's website Wednesday.

The new company, with a registered capital of 6 billion yuan, is expected to push forward the development of PetroChina's five existing shale gas operations as well as other new projects in the market, said the statement.

"The Chongqing government highly values the shale gas industry and is actively constructing infrastructure such as pipelines, which can facilitate PetroChina's shale gas exploration and application," Yu Qing, an industry analyst with Shanghai-based CBI Research Center, told the Global Times Thursday.

The cooperation received a warm welcome from the local government. The venture is regarded as having an important role in the building up of a national shale gas development and utilization demonstration zone in the city, Chongqing Mayor Huang Qifan said in the statement.

Since 2012, China, which holds the largest shale gas resources in the world, has highlighted shale gas development as a major initiative for the country to reduce its reliance on petroleum imports and ease air pollution.

The US Energy Information Administration said in a February report that China is the world's second-largest oil consumer and net oil importer, and expects the country to become the largest net importer in 2014.

On November 19, the State Council reemphasized the importance of developing non-conventional oil and gas resources including shale gas, and aims to keep the country's total primary energy consumption within 4.8 billion tons of standard coal equivalent per year by 2020. In 2013, the consumption stood at 3.4 billion tons of standard coal equivalent, up 2.4 percent year-on-year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

In order to respond to the central government's call and tap the shale gas resources in Chongqing as PetroChina did, its major rival Sinopec Corp also moved in and has reportedly already invested over 2 billion yuan in the area. In March, Sinopec inked a cooperation deal with the Chongqing government on shale gas development, planning to invest another 24 billion yuan.

Shanghai-listed Sinopec also saw its share price jump 10.04 percent Thursday, closing at 6.25 yuan per share.

Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times Thursday that PetroChina has some technological advantages over Sinopec such as in shale gas exploration.

But it is hard to tell which company will stand out from the shale rivalry in the end, as both are confronted with many barriers and remain far from final commercial application, said Lin.

Both Lin and Yu thought the main obstacle is the high exploration cost as a result of premature technology. "The cost is falling, but at a slower pace," said Lin. As a result, Yu predicted that China's shale gas industry will not really take off before 2016.