Shale Backlash Hits China After Deadly Quakes in Drilling Hub
- CNPC suspends operations after two deaths and housing collapse
- Southwest Sichuan province is center of China’s shale industry
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The backlash against shale drilling in earthquake-prone regions -- a thorn in the side of U.S. energy companies for the past decade -- reached China this week after a series of temblors killed two people and reduced homes to rubble.
China’s biggest oil and gas producer halted drilling in an area of the country’s shale hub after three quakes on Sunday and Monday toppled nine houses and caused cracks in dams holding back five small reservoirs, according to the government website of Zigong city in the southwestern province of Sichuan. A further twelve people were injured and nearly 11,000 homes damaged, with losses pegged at about $2 million.