www.enreport.com

According to Chinese The National Energy Administration, China will increase natural gas through unconventional gas resources. It is not shale but CBD (Coal Bed Methane)
"China's coal-bed methane output will reach 30 billion cubic meters in 2015."
"The country aims to add 1 trillion cubic meters of coal-bed methane to its reserves over the next four years"
"China will invest 116.6 billion yuan in coal-bed methane production over the next four years, and establish 13 pipelines with a capacity of 12 billion cubic meters"
"The country's methane resources are estimated at 37 trillion cubic meters, ranking third in the world."
"China is targeting at least a 40-percent reduction in coal mine gas leak accidents and their death tolls by 2015,"

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2011-12/31/c_131337443.htm

IEA has published its new research on Chinese oil companies. The report is full of interesting facts. Also if you follow the sources for graphs you can find valuable reports and presentations such as "Facts Global Energy". My personal feeling is, it is another politically motivated report. Since you can not decouple Chinese Government relations with African countries from Chinese oil companies investments in these countries. However report claims, Chinese oil companies are not the puppets of the government.

IEA facts on China and oil

• In the next five years, almost half of global oil demand growth will come from China.
• In 2010, China imported 4.8 million barrels per day of crude oil, up 17.5 % from 2009.
• By late 2010, Chinese NOCs operated in 31 countries and had equity oil in 20 of these countries.
• In 2010, China’s NOCs invested nearly USD 16 billion in acquiring assets, such as refineries, in Latin America.
• 77% of China’s crude oil imports pass through the Strait of Malacca. By 2015, it is estimated that crude oil passing through the Strait to China will rise to 3.5 million barrels per day. In 2009, 3.1 million barrels per day went through the Strait

Links:
http://www.fgenergy.com/?page=article_type&action=read&id=17
http://www.iea.org/papers/2011/overseas_china.pdf

Pretty interesting piece to read:

China's economy grew at an annualized 6.1 percent rate in the first quarter, and
7.9 percent in the second. Yet electricity usage, a key indicator in industrial
growth and a harder metric to manipulate, declined 2.2 percent in the first six
months of the year.

Ref:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/09/03/how_china_cooks_its_books?page=0,1

A brief info about Chinese involvement as a global player in oil sector

• Russia : $10 billion loan the Chinese government extended to Russia's Rosneft in exchange for a guaranteed cut of that company's production
• Brazil: With Petrobras, arranging a similar deal with the firm that is developing a huge new offshore field - one of the biggest new discoveries in decades.
• Argentina: China National Petroleum Corporation is interested in buying all or a part of Argentina's YPF for $14.5 billion, although a deal is far from certain
• Angola: CNOOC and Sinopec are buying a $1.3 billion stake in offshore Angolan development rights from American oil firm Marathon.
• Iraq: China National Petroleum Corporation will take the majority stake in Iraq's Rumaila oilfield from BP (BP). Rumaila produces over 1 million barrels a day, and is Iraq's biggest oil field.

Also some comparisons "China National Petroleum Corporation's daily oil production is already roughly equivalent to Exxon's. And PetroChina at one point had a market capitalization twice Exxon's" but "Complex operations - like deep water drilling or liquefying natural gas, are still the domain of the Western oil firms." however : "given their need to develop those deep-water leases off Angola, the Chinese are bound to gain the technical know-how that will put them on-par with the best western firms"

Ref:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/17/news/international/china_oil/index.htm

One of my friends has shared the following article from New York Times which I enjoyed reading. The article tries to find out whether we reached the "bottom of recession", using several indicators. It looks to three indicators:

One of the implications of the recession is the big drops in electricity demands. In the developing countries, we see electricity demand drops followed by drops at industrial activity statistics. Here we see a basic example of economic activity(export rate is an indicator of Chinese economy) and electricity demand.

This news (China hit by massive drop in exports) from Financial Times says :
"Chinese exports plunged 25.7 per cent in February compared with a year ago, much higher than analysts had expected, as the global economic crisis began to take its full toll on the country’s export sector."

You should also check the following line:
"China’s exports have decreased for four months in a row, but until February the rate of decline had been much slower than seen in other Asian countries with large export sectors. .... The trade surplus, which has been at record levels for the last four months, also shrank sharply from $39.1bn to $4.84bn."

This reminded me the news from last month about a drop in Chinese electricity demand. Last month(Jan 2008), we have seen a 13% drop in Chinese electricity demand:

"Major power producers generated only 250.3 million megawatt hours of electricity last month, falling 13 percent from a year earlier, the China Daily reported. This is the fourth consecutive month that electricity generation in the country declined".
Source: China Post

Also read this one from Xinhua:

"However, the decline was smaller than in November and December, when power use fell 8.6 percent and 8.93 percent, respectively. According to CEC, the slowing pace of decline was a sign of economic recovery, as industrial use accounts for about 75 percent of total consumption. "

If you check Chinese state grid web site (http://www.sgcc.com.cn/) , you will see that the graphs (English / Statistics) are not updated for a long time