Chinese oil and gas giant Sinopec released China's first report that elaborates on the social and environmental aspects of shale gas on Monday.
Shale gas technology uses “fracking” methods which means fracturing of rocks to extract gas or fuel using fluid pressure, often with chemical additives. Some organizations claims that the method might cause environmental complications, such as contamination of ground water, excess amount of waste water and air quality issues caused by greenhouse gas emissions during the process.
“Sinopec Shale Gas Development Environmental, Social and Governance Report” says that the company pursues environmental concerns like conserving water, reducing carbon emissions, monitoring and mitigating impacts during the production of shale gas.
The report said they are working on new technologies to recycle the water that is used during fracking and to strengthen environmental monitoring. It also states that they formed a special station that gathers daily data of gas fields. Sinopec also stated that the company will not operate in ecologically sensitive areas.
The state-owned company also says it gives importance to openly communicating with local communities while working on shale gas. Sinopec stated that it formed a department to engage with communities that will answer their complaints and to organize public meetings that will allow opportunities to gather people's opinions.
“Sinopec considers the development of shale gas a crucial initiative to support the implementation of green and low-carbon strategy,” the Vice President of the company, Jiao Fangzheng said in his speech on the report.
Sinopec also reported that the target of producing two billion cubic meters of shale gas has been achieved ahead of schedule with 75 test wells in the Fuling shale gas field.
The company noted that the Fuling field has a daily average output of 3.6 million cubic meters.
By Nihan Cabbaroglu
Anadolu Agency
nihan.cabbaroglu@aa.com.tr