Argentina and China have become the two countries leading the shale production in the North America dominated sector, according to Energy Information Administration, EIA, in a report published on Friday.
EIA said China has drilled more than 200 wells and Argentina 275 wells in the last two years as the rest of the countries could not reach significant resources in their research.聽
The U.S., Canada, China and Argentina are the only four countries, which can produce commercial volumes of shale gas and oil from tight formations, while the U.S.聽
Argentine's largest shale operator,聽Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales, a national company, announced production of聽22,900 barrels per day聽of oil and 1.9 million cubic meter聽per day聽of natural gas in April 2015. China's Sinopec and Russian Gazprom have also showed their interest as they signed MOUs with the company.
China's national companies, Sinopec and聽China National Petroleum Corporation's聽PetroChina,聽are on schedule to reach almost 17聽million cubic meter聽of shale gas production by the end of this year, according to EIA.聽
The U.S. overtops in shale production with more than 2聽billion cubic meters of shale gas production in 2014 based on EIA figures.聽
Other countries such as Poland, Algeria, Australia, Colombia and Russia have launched exploration efforts, while Mexico's drilling to explore shale oil and natural gas is in the making.聽
By Furkan Naci Top
Anadolu Agency
furkan.top@aa.com.tr