Big Bad News? China's Oil Discovery
by Rachel Wasser, Beijing, China 
on 04.30.07
The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), China's leading offshore oil producer, announced recently that it had made the nation's largest oil find in a decade. They've hit a jackpot: the new domestic source apparently has reserves of about 2.2 billion barrels. But for China, that's still just under a year's worth of black gold. Last year, the Middle Kingdom - now the world's second largest oil consumer after the US, as well as the #2 greenhouse gas emitter - imported just under 50% of its oil needs, and consumed 2.4 billion barrels. Concerns about energy security, local environmental pollution, and global warming, which is going to hit China hard, are driving an aggressive push for a sustainable energy future. The nation's leaders are emphasizing both improved energy efficiency and renewables, and they have set ambitious targets. (One such target? Quadruple national GDP by 2020, while merely doubling energy consumption from 2000 levels. China's done it before, and they aim to do it again.) But at the same time, the national authorities are also pushing state-owned oil and gas conglomerates to find new domestic sources for old energy standbys.
So is this new oil discovery bad news? China needs oil to move forward - without it, the economy would grind to a crashing halt - and moving forward supposedly means moving towards an alternative energy future. In addition, there are energy security concerns. And China's concerns, as nations compete for limited supplies, are certainly not China's alone. But this discovery does take some pressure off China's planners - which ultimately might mean more greenhouse gas emissions and pressure on the planet. Big bad news? Good news? Not exactly either? This jury's still out. What do you think? Let us know in the comments! ::The Associated Press. Also see ::The Coming Decline of Oil, ::Building a Green China, ::China Leads World in Renewable Energy Investment.
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Well, oil is much, much better than coal. If this oil offsets an equal amount of coal energy, then it's the lesser of two evils.
While it would be great to see China's CO2 emissions fall, we all know that's not going to happen. This discovery will probably be more effective in reducing China's CO2 increase than any nagging from the West.
This is terrible news. We shouldn't even be looking for oil any longer. We should be in a state of transformation to new technologies. Change only happens slowly because companies are afraid of it. Embracing clean technology is crucial, and discovering new reserves of oil is so backwards.
I agree with anonymous that it's a good thing. For too long China's been building coal plants with abandon. When I visited Beijing and Shanghai, I felt like i was in a star wars movie, seeing the amber sun through a gray haze all day. Either fuel is the devil's excrement, but at least oil is the less dirty of the two. Barely cleaner is better than not at all.
In any case, we need to ramp up to building renewables and drumming up the downtempo needed for true sustainability... which takes some oil and natural gas for now... ask any smoker how it is to go cold turkey!
Cheers,
KO
ref "china imported just under 50% of its oil needs, and consumed 2.4 billion barrels"
and
"They've hit a jackpot: the new domestic source apparently has reserves of about 2.2 billion barrels"
does this mean they will import less in future
and how does this affect globol oil prices?
any answers?
Although China is seeminly remote, recent studies in Oregon indicates that the vast majority of environemntal mercury pollution is from non-point sources that are the result of air deposition. Mercury deposition has been linked to coal burning without emmision controls. If the deposition in Oregon are noticable, imagine the bioaccumulative effects on the oceans where the expected deposition is greater. Remember that the next time you buy tuna. Cheers
This sounds like good news. Any new oil discovery is good. Just because the US is to stupid to drill for oil does not mean other countries are. This will help take the pressure off oil prices.
Global warming from man made CO2 is just a scam so that is not even a factor. Al Gore is just trying to make money for selling CO2 credits. History is just repeating a warming and cooling cycle.
But the supplies of oil and coal are limited so even without the global warming scam we do need to work on new sources of energy. Not one type but all. Wind, Solar, Nuclear, Hydro, and any other source of energy needs to be taped.