Research On Legal Regulations For Water Resources In Shale Gas Exploration And Development In China

As a clean and efficient newly-developed energy with wide storage and easy promotion,shale gas turned into the hotspots in global oil-gas exploration and development,and this trended up when the international natural gas market and global energy structure significantly transformed and major energy powers reinforced their shale gas exploration after American shale gas reform.Within the 12 th “five-year” plan period,China prospected important breakthrough in shale gas exploration and development and evolved to be the first country implementing scale and commercialized exploration outside North America.Under the new economic development normal,shale gas development is strategically significant to optimize energy structure,safeguard its security and promote economic transformation and upgrading.Chinese shale gas industry is still at the preliminary development stage and encountered with a number of uncertainties and challenges,among which is the highly attended water resources and water environments problems in the process of shale gas exploration and development.To combat prominent problems like excessive consumption of water resources and potential hazards of fracturing fluids to the quality and quantity of underground water,a profound legal and institutional system governing shale gas exploration and development shall be established and perfected to escort the healthy shale gas industry development and provide it with mighty legal protection in a long run.Among the total five chapters of the thesis,Part I,also the background,presented the topic selection,significance,current status,research mind-map,protocols and innovations of the research;Part II summarized the general review of shale gas energy,including its characteristics,distribution,exploration and development of shale gas in China,and the water environmental impact of shale gas exploration;Part III was the review of current legal regulations and the unveiling of existing problems and demerits.Part IV studied the water resources legal regulations in America and Canada as experience references and Part V conclusively proposed five recommendations on how to innovate Chinese water resources legal regulations in shale gas development based on the actual situation of exploration and the mature legal system for shale gas development in the two countries mentioned above.