LONDON, Dec 9 (Reuters) – Chinese oil companies are changing their approach to investing in oil and gas projects overseas, placing more emphasis on community development and less on Beijing’s political goals.

Over the past decade, China’s state-controlled energy giants have been the most prolific buyers of oil and gas companies and fields internationally, spurred by a government policy to secure resources to fuel the country’s economic boom.

But the companies have been accused of linking their help for less developed nations to the sale of energy assets and of cosying up to pariah regimes.

Senior officials with state-controlled oil giants CNPC and CNOOC said at a major industry gathering in Qatar this week that they would behave more like big Western international oil groups such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil.

“You will see more (Chinese companies) using the same practices as others,” Chen Weidong, Chief Energy Scientist with China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), told Reuters in an interview.

“All the Chinese companies are changing quickly.”

The big Western oil companies grew out of one-sided deals with African and Middle Eastern countries in the early 20th century.

ALMATY/DOHA (Reuters) – Kazakhstan is poised next week to acquire 10 percent of Karachaganak, ending a long dispute with the foreign owners of a field that contributes half of the country’s gas and ensuring the state now owns part of every big energy project on its soil.

Two sources close to the negotiations told Reuters on Friday that Kazakhstan would pay $1 billion in cash and drop legal claims against the operators of the gas and oil field in order to earn its stake in a consortium led by BG Group (BG.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Eni (ENI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

“Everything major that has been a bone of contention will go away,” one of the sources said.

A more assertive Kazakhstan, home to 3 percent of the world’s recoverable oil reserves and the largest economy in Central Asia, has sought in recent years to revise deals struck with foreign energy companies in the lean post-Soviet years.

After securing and then doubling its stake in the Kashagan oilfield, the world’s biggest oil discovery since the 1960s, the state has set its sights on joining the Karachaganak consortium, which also includes Chevron (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and LUKOIL (LKOH.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

The field currently contributes 49 percent of Kazakhstan’s gas production and 18 percent of its crude oil. It has trebled output since 1999, overcoming technical challenges such as high reservoir pressures and very sour gas.

One of three sources who spoke to Reuters said he expected senior officials from the consortium partners to be invited to the Kazakh capital Astana no later than December 16, the 20th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s independence from the Soviet Union.

DOHA, Dec 8 (Reuters) – Big oil and gas companies say their increasing dominance of shale gas exploration will bring improved drilling practices and should end the safety lapses that have led to environmental opposition to the fast-growing, multi-billion dollar industry.

Cases of water contamination and the leakage of flammable methane gas into homes are due to occasionally shoddy activities by some of the small players, who developed the industry over the past decade, rather than fundamental problems with shale gas drilling, some industry executives said.

Oil majors such as Exxon Mobil, BP and Royal Dutch Shell Plc have begun to buy up the first movers in the industry. At the World Petroleum Congress (WPC) in Doha this week, big company bosses said they would help the shale industry improve its game.

“I think Shell, or for that matter Exxon, coming in a big way into this shale gas operation will actually drive the standards up,” Shell Chief Executive Peter Voser told a joint press conference with Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson.

Environmentalists said, however, the desire to avoid legislation was likely behind Big Oil’s claims of future better practices.

“We do not believe this. The large companies violate the law regularly,” said Amy Mall, senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C.

The oil and gas industry fears that public opposition will drive increased regulation and restrictions on where it can drill.

DOHA, Dec 8 (Reuters) – PetroChina said a new shale gas find in Sichuan province would be difficult to convert to commercial production because Chinese geological conditions were more difficult than in the United States where the industry developed.

“We have made a discovery already. The problem is how to make the production stable, how to increase the production, this needs technology,” Zhou Jiping vice-Chairman & President, PetroChina told a press conference at the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress in Doha.

Yet he said he was ‘confident’ that, in time, commercial shale gas production would commence.

On Tuesday, Reuters revealed Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which is a partner of PetroChina on shale gas exploration in a Sichuan block, had found shale gas there.

On Wednesday, Fu Chengyu, chairman of state-controlled China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) , predicted China’s shale gas production would surpass that of the United States within a decade.

U.S. energy markets were transformed by the development of shale gas, from a position of natural gas shortages to a point where companies are planning to export gas to Asia and looking at new uses for gas, such as, as an auto fuel.

The optimism around Chinese shale has been stoked by a U.S. Energy Information Administration report in April which said China had 1,275 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of technically recoverable shale gas resources — by far the largest in the world, followed by the United States with 862 tcf.

DOHA, Dec 7 (Reuters) – French oil major Total said it could build a pipeline from South Sudan to Uganda that would continue to Kenya’s coast, potentially solving the fledgling state’s headache about how to export its oil.

Total Christophe de Margerie said his company had proposed to Uganda that a pipeline that is planned to bring Ugandan oil to a Kenyan port be built so it could be extended to South Sudan.

“The pipe, which is supposed to be from our potential blocks, because they are not yet our blocks in Uganda, could be, effectively, a hub for different sources of crude,” de Margerie told a press conference at the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress.

“We say to Uganda as part of our long-term view you have to take into consideration what sort of oil can come from neighbour countries to make the pipe less expensive,” he added.

Landlocked South Sudan took two-thirds of Sudan’s 500,000 barrels a day of oil production when it became independent in July, but it is now locked in a row with Khartoum over the use of the northern pipeline to the Red Sea.

Khartoum has demanded a $32 a barrel fee to use the pipeline to Port Sudan, which is more than 10 times typical industry levels, taking account of construction cost and distance.

South Sudan has talked to companies about building a pipeline directly to Kenya, but analysts say it would be difficult for the country, which still suffers civil strife, to raise the funds required or overcome other logistical challenges.

DOHA, Dec 7 (Reuters) – China is set for a shale gas revolution which will surpass that seen in the United States, the chairman of Sinopec, the country’s second-largest oil company, said a day after Reuters revealed Royal Dutch Shell Plc had begun shale gas production in China.

Fu Chengyu, chairman of state-controlled China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) , said it could take five to 10 years but that China’s output would exceed that of the United States.

“I think the total reserves are even more than the U.S. so production is not less than the U.S., but it is a matter of timing,” he told reporters at the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress.

U.S. energy markets were fundamentally changed by the development of shale gas. In the space of several years, the country went from natural gas shortages to a point where companies are planning to export gas to Asia, and are now looking at new uses for the abundant gas, such as auto fuel.

Earlier this week, Yuzhang Liu, a senior official with Shell’s partner PetroChina, a unit of the country’s top energy group, state-owned CNPC, said the Anglo-Dutch oil major had begun shale gas production in China.

Currently, a number of companies are exploring for shale gas potential in China but there is no commercial shale gas production.

A U.S. Energy Information Administration report in April said China had 1,275 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of technically recoverable shale gas resources — by far the largest in the world, followed by the United States with 862 tcf and Argentina with 774 tcf.

DOHA, Dec 6 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc has found shale gas in China, a development that could cap imports in a market natural gas producers are hoping will drive demand.

An official with Shell’s partner, PetroChina, a unit of the country’s top energy group, state-owned CNPC, said drilling results from two wells Shell drilled had been positive.

“Shell has two vertical wells and they got very good primary production,” Professor Yuzhang Liu, Vice president of Petrochina’s Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development (RIPED), said in an interview at the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress (WPC) in Doha.

“It’s good news for shale gas,” Liu, who regularly represents PetroChina at industry events around the world, told Reuters late on Monday.

China currently has no commercial production of shale gas, which is natural gas extracted from soft, finely stratified sedimentary rock.

It is obtained by hydraulically fracturing the rock and requires large quantities of water and chemicals to extract, which environmentalists say can contaminate groundwater supplies.

Some industry executives doubt the boom in shale gas in the United States that has revolutionised the market there could be replicated elsewhere due to difficult geology, the lack of water availability or land access issues.

DOHA (Reuters) – The Chief Executive of AMEC Plc (AMEC.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said global economic weakness means the British engineering group may be better off preserving cash rather than hiking the dividend, as some analysts have predicted it would do.

AMEC, which provides engineering and construction services to the energy industry, is riding high in part due to the boom of oil and gas investment prompted by strong prices.

The London-based company reported rising earnings in the first half of the year, which helped boost its cash pile to almost half a billion pounds, and last month it gave a strong outlook for 2012.

This prompted some analysts to predict a hike in the dividend. But Samir Brikho told Reuters this may not be prudent and that the market may not actually “appreciate” the move.

“Many in the industry at the current stage would prefer to hold back on the dividends and make a reinvestment in their vision and strategy in order not to loose their grip and to lose their position in the current economic uncertainties,” he said in an interview at the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress in Doha.

“Nowadays we are in a second dip in the recession… who knows what’s going to happen next year or the year after, so we need to evaluate that situation on a yearly basis,” he added.

However, he said the company remained committed to raising its dividend, in line with earnings.

DOHA (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc has found shale gas in China, a development that could cap imports in a market natural gas producers are hoping will drive demand.

An official with Shell’s partner, PetroChina (601857.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), a unit of the country’s top energy group, state-owned CNPC, said drilling results from two wells Shell drilled had been positive.

“Shell has two vertical wells and they got very good primary production,” Professor Yuzhang Liu, Vice president of Petrochina’s Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development (RIPED), said in an interview at the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress (WPC) in Doha.

“It’s good news for shale gas,” Liu, who regularly represents PetroChina at industry events around the world, told Reuters late on Monday.

China currently has no commercial shale gas production.

Some industry executives doubt the explosion of shale gas in the U.S. that has revolutionized the market there could be replicated elsewhere due to difficult geology, the lack of water availability or land access issues.

Liu accepted the rock formations in China were “different” from those in the United States but denied this meant they were more challenging or less bountiful.

LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) – U.S. oil company Anadarko Petroleum said its major gas finds offshore Mozambique were around twice as large as it earlier thought, adding support to hopes that East Africa will become another major gas production centre.

Anadarko said on Monday that the results of its Barquentine-3 appraisal well showed its fields had recoverable reserves of 15 to over 30 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas — compared to total UK gas reserves of 9 Tcf, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.

“This could be one of the most important natural gas fields discovered in the last 10 years,” said Anadarko Chairman Jim Hackett.

Previously, Anadarko said the fields, in which Japan’s Mitsui & Co Ltd and Dublin-based Cove Energy Plc have stakes, held “at least 10 Tcf” of gas.

Cove shares traded up 9.8 percent at 87 pence at 0925 GMT, outperforming a 1.9 percent rise in the STOXX Europe 600 Oil and Gas index.

Analyst at Peel Hunt said they had upgraded their target price for the shares to 166 pence from 126 pence.

Anadarko said the results supported its plans to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in Mozambique.