Beijing, May 24: Dutch Shell group, Europe's second-biggest oil company, is in talks to invest in a Shale-Oil venture in Jilin province in China's North-East, communist party officials in the province said. Shell would be a ``strategic'' investor in the project to extract oil from Shale, Zhu Zhongming, secretary of the party in Jilin city, told reporters on a tour of the region. The venture may be in Jilin city in partnership with Jilin Chemical, he said, without giving further details.

Shell and BP PLC, Europe's biggest oil company, plan to spend more than one billion dollar to build petrochemical plants and gasoline stations in china, the world's largest oil-consuming country after the US. Oil and petrochemical demand in China is rising as the economy expands, spurring consumption of power, metals and raw materials. Even with growth projected to slow from 9.1 percent in 2003, China needs more fuel for car owners, whose ranks have grown by half each year since 2001. Shell and Sinopec, Asia's biggest oil refiner, agreed to spend 200 million dollar building 500 gasoline stations in Jiangsu province, the companies said. Jiangsu is China's richest province, with a population of 73.5 million.
Bureau Report