双语新闻：中国美国开采天然气任重道远

2014-08-26 15:49:43来源：可可英语

　　Gas had looked like one of the few remaining ways for China to reduce its addiction to coal.China’s nuclear power program slowed after Japan’s triple meltdown in Fukushima. Efforts toexpand hydroelectric power have run into environmental concerns as well as the huge cost ofresettling people from areas flooded when dams are built to make artificial lakes. Solar powerand wind power are growing rapidly, but from small bases.

　　天然气一度看起来是中国减少对煤炭依赖的为数不多的办法之一。在日本福岛核电站发生三重熔融事故之后，中国的核能项目放慢了步伐。扩大水力发电的努力则遭遇了环保方面的担忧，而且为了造湖而修建的水坝会导致人员迁徙，从而带来巨大成本。太阳能和风能的确在迅速增长，但基础太过薄弱。

　　The revised figures from Mr. Wu represented China’s first official acknowledgment of whatWestern experts have been saying for many months: The country will not approach thesuccess of the United States in shale gas anytime soon.

　　吴新雄对天然气产量预期的调整，意味着中国首次正式承认了西方国家的专家近段时间以来的说法：中国在短期内将无法触及美国在页岩气领域的那种成就。

　　Shale gas deposits lie much deeper in China than in the United States, which greatly increasesdrilling costs. Chinese shale also tends to be laden with clay and is much wetter than Americanshale, making it harder to crack the shale and release the gas through pumping liquids andsand underground, the process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

　　在中国，页岩气储备的埋藏位置要比美国深得多，大大增加了开采成本。中国的页岩层中还往往掺杂着大量泥土，且比美国的页岩层潮湿得多，因此更加难以通过向地下泵入液体和沙子来压裂页岩以释放其中的天然气——也就是所谓的“水力压裂”。

　　After 40 million years of powerful earthquakes as the Indian subcontinent plowed into southernAsia, the main shale gas seams in western China are jumbled underground, instead of lying flatlike a stack of pancakes, as in the United States, said Jeff Layman, a partner in the Beijingoffice of Baker Botts, the big Houston energy law firm.

　　贝克博茨律师事务所(Baker Botts)北京办公室的合伙人雷介福(Jeff Layman)表示，经过4000万年印度次大陆挤入南亚板块带来的强烈地震，中国西部的主要页岩气层在地下混杂分布，而不是像美国那样，如同一摞薄饼平铺在地底。贝克博茨律师事务所是总部位于休斯顿的大型能源律所。

　　In March, Sinopec, a Chinese oil giant, announced the country’s first commercially viable shalegas deposit, located outside Chongqing, and predicted annual production would reach a hefty10 billion cubic meters by 2017. But the company has released few details, prompting foreignenergy experts to begin asking whether all of the seams are truly shale, although Sinopecinsists they are.

　　今年3月，中国石油业巨头中石化宣布，发现了国内首个具有商业价值的页岩气田，并预测到2017年，这个位于重庆郊外的页岩气田的年产量将达到颇为可观的100亿立方米。但该公司没有透露多少相关细节，使得外国能源专家开始怀疑，是否所有矿层都是纯正的页岩层，尽管中石化坚称的确如此。

　　Neither Sinopec nor its rival, PetroChina, has announced any other large fields despiteextensive drilling. Both of these state-controlled companies said in March that they were stilldrilling actively for shale gas in China even as they cut their worldwide exploration budgets foroil and gas after weak results.

　　虽然进行了大规模勘探，中石化及其竞争对手中石油都没有宣布发现了其他大型页岩气田。这两家国企均在3月表示，它们仍在积极地进行国内的页岩气勘探工作，即便因为收效甚微，它们削减了全球油气勘探的预算。

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