– La Cina, primo consumatore mondiale di energia, e secondo di petrolio, offre potenziali opportunità ai gruppi occidentali;
o PetroChina e Royal Dutsch Shell hanno scoperto gas da scisti nella provincia cinese del Sichuan; sono interessati al suo sfruttamento anche altri gruppi, tra cui Chevron e Statoil.
o La Cina spera di portare la produzione di gas da scisti, quasi nulla attualmente, a 60-100MD di metri cubici/anno per il 2020.
o Le riserve cinesi stimate di gas da scisti sono di 25 000 MD di metri cubici, le maggiori del mondo.
– Il gigante francese del petrolio, Total, ha siglato accordi con China Petrochemical Corp., o Sinopec Group, per la ricerca e produzione di gas da scisti bituminose.
– Lo Stato cinese (l’Amministrazione per il Cambio Estero, China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange) detiene il 2% di Total.
– Total ha aderito al progetto per la costruzione di una raffineria (produzione prevista 300mila b/g) (costo previsto $10MD) che verrà costruita a Zhanjiang, nella provincia meridionale del Guandong, da Synopec e due gruppi del Kuwait, (Kuwait Petroleum International e Petrochemicals Industries); al progetto si è unita. Total sta negoziando anche la creazione di una joint venture di commercializzazione del combustibile e prodotti petrochimici che vi verranno prodotti, con il 51% a Sinopec e il 49% a Total e ai due gruppi kuwaitiani.
– Total ha già una joint venture per la raffinazione a Dalian nel N-E.
– Total vorrebbe raddoppiare, assieme al cinese Sinochem, la catena di stazioni di rifornimento nel Sud Cina, dove ne ha già 300.
Il CEO di Total: sarebbero benvenuti nuovi investimenti cinesi, anche da CIC (China investment Corp); anche il Qatar ha acquisito il 2% di Total.
– BEIJING—Total top executive unveiled new ties with China as the French oil giant shifts its focus toward the fast-growing market, saying it reached pacts on shale-gas and refining operations here and that Chinese authorities now own a 2% stake in the company.
– Total reached a pact with China Petrochemical Corp., or Sinopec Group, to search for and produce shale gas, Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie said in an interview.
– China has ambitions to tap its potentially lucrative yet technically challenging shale-gas deposits, which consist of natural gas trapped in rock formations. Shale gas has transformed the U.S. energy market but hasn’t yet been harnessed by energy-hungry China.
– Total also is in talks for the right to market fuel and petrochemicals in China produced by a planned refinery complex in the country’s south, Mr. de Margerie said. On Tuesday, Total said it agreed to join the project for a 300,000-barrel-a-day complex in Zhanjiang, in the southern province of Guangdong, to be built by Sinopec and two Kuwaiti companies, Kuwait Petroleum International and Petrochemicals Industries Co., but final terms still need to be addressed. Mr. de Margerie put the value of the refinery project at nearly $10 billion, though he said talks aren’t yet complete.
– Mr. de Margerie, who plans to meet with Chinese government and company officials this week, said that China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange, which holds the nation’s vast foreign-exchange reserves, now owns 2% of Total. He didn’t say when the investment took place.
– He said he would welcome fresh investments, including possibly from sovereign-wealth fund China Investment Corp.
– "If CIC wants to take more, we don’t have any problem," Mr. de Margerie said. He also confirmed that Qatar had built a stake of 2% in Total. "It is good for a company to have a historical partner in your share capital," he said, adding "it is a way to reaffirm this long-term partnership."
– China—the world’s No. 1 consumer of all energy and No. 2 oil consumer—presents a potential opportunity for Western companies. At the same time, China keeps a tight hold of the strategically important sector, regulating prices and restricting participation by foreign players. PetroChina Co. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC said in December they had found shale gas after drilling their first evaluation well in Sichuan province, while other companies, including Chevron Corp. and Statoil, want to exploit shale-gas reserves in China.
– Total also is interested in becoming one of the major foreign companies to list its shares in the country, Mr. de Margerie said. The potential to list in China has drawn public interest from others, include Coca-Cola Co. and HSBC Holdings, though China currently restricts foreign companies from listing here and hasn’t outlined a timetable for allowing them.
– Mr. de Margerie said Total’s agreement with Sinopec to explore for shale gas in China would be presented to the government soon. China hopes to ramp up shale-gas output to between 60 billion and 100 billion cubic meters annually by 2020 from almost zero now, and it hopes to emulate the progression seen in the U.S., where new drilling technology has led to a surge in natural-gas output and slashed natural-gas prices.
– China has an estimated 25 trillion cubic meters of potentially recoverable shale-gas reserves, the largest in any country, according to local media reports, citing the Ministry of Land and Resources.
Mr. de Margerie described the 2020 goal as ambitious and said approvals were needed quickly or reaching the target would be "undoable."
– Total, which already has a refining joint venture in Dalian in northeastern China, hopes the Guangdong project could lead to greater access in China.
It aims to establish a marketing joint venture that would be 51% owned by Sinopec and 49% owned by Total and the Kuwaiti partners. Total wants access to the domestic China market for the southern complex’s refined petroleum and petrochemical output, Mr. de Margerie said.
"We need to have a wholesale license for the oil products," he said.
It also hopes to extend its chain of filling stations into southern China through that project, building on a network of 300 it has already set up, and another 300 planned in a venture with another Chinese company, Sinochem Group.