Explosion Hits China Factory at Center of Influential Protest -WSJ | Six years ago, thousands of people in the coastal city of Xiamen used peaceful protests to upend plans for a chemical plant they feared was dangerous, scoring a victory that fostered copycat activism nationwide in China. Despite that success, the plant was eventually built in a different location. On Tuesday, part of it exploded. ...The incident follows increased reassurance in China’s state-run media that it is safe to produce the chemical made at the plant, a plastics input called paraxylene, or PX. On the same day as the blast, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece newspaper, the People’s Daily, quoted an oil an industry executive as saying, “For large projects like PX, they have been running for decades without big work safety accidents anywhere.”

中国不会有单纯的页岩气革命 产业化至少需5年-  能源网/中国经贸聚焦 | China won't have a simple shale gas revolution, achieving industrial scale will take at 5 - 10 years. Obstacles: 1) fracking uses lots of water, China is short of water; 2) industrial structure (no small and medium size companies to spread out and take risks as is done in US and, although it is not mentioned here,there are no private mineral rights and no small/medium-sized oil and gas exploration and service companies in China); 3) low, rigid prices although price reform should help provide better incentives; and 4) the difficulty in attracting private investment vs govt driven, directed subsidized investment that created problems in PV. Aside: Given non-existent private minerals rights, lack of local expertise / smaller companies and pricing risks, seems like government will be subsidizing the big three to undertake this revolution. Hard to imagine it will look anything like the US revolution - the industrial ecosystem and legal frameworks are entirely different - a shale gas revolution with Chinese characteristics perhaps “中国页岩气真正的产业化、规模化至少需要5-10年时间。页岩气的规模化或将成为可能到来的中国整个新兴能源革命的一部分。”　近期，中国页岩气开发又掀起了新一轮热潮。6月中，达集团、百勤控股公司、国投重庆页岩气开发利用公司等5家企业与重庆两江新区管委会正式签约，拟投资40亿元建设页岩气勘探装备制造、页岩气开发利用和开采服务等4个重点项目，预计将实现年产值100亿元；山东也正计划将具备产业发展基础的东营、青岛、烟台、潍坊、德州打造成五大页岩气装备制造基地；湖北鄂西亦在组织开展页岩气勘探工作……6月24日，国土资源部矿产资源储量评审中心主任张大伟表示，国土部正积极筹划第三轮页岩气探矿权招标工作。据称第三轮招标有望在今年下半年启动，招标规模或超前两轮总和。不过，多位专家在接受《中国经贸聚焦》杂志采访时均认为，中国页岩气勘探开发距产业化和规模化尚有相当长的距离。当前，各地包括资本市场的追捧，炒作成分偏大。而过早的乐观，甚至为了政府补贴盲目蜂拥进入，风电和光伏的产能过剩就是前车之鉴。

China: Citizens united - FT (paywall) | ...“China is like a game of Go,” says one Chinese scholar who also does public advocacy work, referring to the highly tactical board game. “The government always pays attention to a few certain dots but we have put down so many pieces. By the time the government notices, they’ve already lost control.” The most striking example of this trend has been environmental activism. In recent years China has experienced a plethora of big protests against projects such as petrochemical plants and incinerators. Behind this is the rapid emergence of a web of NGOs that are increasingly vocal and interconnected. Wu Fengshi, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, found in a recent study that environmental NGOs in Guangdong, the populous industrialised province next to Hong Kong, “are politically conscious – and even savvy”.

China Commodities Weekly Wrap - The China Perspective

CNPC lifts overseas oil and gas output by 8.2% in H1 - Interfax | China National Petroleum Corp.’s foreign oil and gas output rose by 8.2% from the year before to 54.66 million tons of oil equivalent (mtoe) in H1 2013, the company said on Monday.

China’s Spending on Renewable Energy May Total 1.8 Trillion Yuan - Bloomberg | China’s spending to develop renewable energy may total 1.8 trillion yuan ($294 billion) in the five years through 2015 as part of the nation’s efforts to counter climate change, according to a government official. China may invest another 2.3 trillion yuan in key energy-saving and emission-reducing projects, Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said today at a conference in Beijing. China stands by its pledge to cut carbon emissions per unit of economic output by as much as 45 percent before 2020 from 2005 levels, he said.

• China outlines renewable energy splurge - SMH | The government aims to have 100 gigawatts of wind-power installed capacity and more than 35 gigawatts of solar power by 2015, Xie reiterated today. China’s targets have encouraged companies including China Petrochemical Corp., also known as Sinopec Group, to strengthen their commitment to protect the environment.