Looking for More Fuel In Unexpected Places

燃料何處尋？在你想不到的地方！

By Mark Scott

The world’s largest energy companies have big plans for Mozambique.
全球最具規模的一些能源集團已經針對莫三比克擬妥大計畫。

Until recently, the East African country was better known for its long civil war, and had few energy resources compared with regional heavy hitters like Nigeria and Angola.
直到不久之前，地處非洲東部的莫三比克一直是因內戰不止而為世人所知。與區域能源生產大國奈及利亞、安哥拉相比，它擁有的能源資源也少得可憐。

But in the last 10 years, companies like Exxon Mobil, the BG Group of Britain and Eni of Italy have used the latest technologies, including advances in deep-sea drilling, to find new natural gas resources that are turning Mozambique into the center of an energy boom.
然而這10年來，埃克森美孚、英國天然氣集團、義大利埃尼集團等大型能源公司，相繼利用深海鑽採技術突破等最新技術，在莫國發現此前未知的天然氣資源，使它成為另一波能源熱的核心。

Up and down the country’s shoreline, Western energy companies, as well as a number of Asian competitors, are drilling wells deep below the Indian Ocean in hopes of striking it rich. The rewards could be huge.
西方能源公司及其亞洲對手相繼在莫三比克南北外海的印度洋海域鑽鑿深井，期望勘採到蘊藏量豐富的石油及天然氣。它們獲得的回報可能極為可觀。

Mozambique may have more deposits of natural gas – used in everything from manufacturing to electricity generation – than the European energy giant Norway.
天然氣可用於製造與發電等諸多領域。莫三比克的蘊藏量可能比歐洲能源超級大國挪威還要大。

And the East African country is not alone in its newfound energy wealth. Countries like Tanzania and Kenya also are attracting billions of dollars in investment from the world’s largest energy companies as they search for new oil and gas reserves.
莫三比克並不是發現能源財富的唯一非洲國家。在全球幾家最大能源公司爭相尋找新的石油與天然氣蘊藏資源的局面下，坦尚尼亞、肯亞等國家已經開始吸引這些公司投注巨額資金。

“Africa will be the backbone of our production and growth in the next 10 years,” Paolo Scaroni, chief executive of the Italian energy giant Eni, told investors in London in March.
埃尼集團執行長史卡洛尼上個月在倫敦向投資人說：「非洲將是未來10年我們生產與成長的支柱。」

In total, Eni expects to spend $50 billion to develop natural gas projects off the coast of Mozambique.
埃尼集團打算斥資500億美元在莫三比克外海勘採天然氣。

The quickening pace of exploration in East Africa is part of a wider shake-up in the global energy industry as it scrambles to adapt to a series of major changes. Those range from the nuclear disaster in Japan last year, to slashed subsidies for alternative energy amid Europe’s economic crisis, to a boom in unconventional fossil fuels like shale gas that has spread across continents.
東非洲天然資源探勘步伐加快，是全球能源產業為適應一連串重大變化而重新部署的環節之一。這些變化包括去年日本311核子災變、歐洲各國因為經濟危機而減少對替代能源提供補助，以及包括頁岩天然氣在內的多種非傳統化石燃料近年在各大洲掀起熱潮等。

The changes have been particularly drastic in fast-growing China, now the world’s largest energy user and emitter of carbon dioxide. Since opening its economy over three decades ago, the country has become an insatiable consumer of natural resources.
在成長快速的中國大陸這些改變尤其劇烈，目前它已是舉世最大的能源消耗與二氧化碳排放國。30多年前改革開放至今，它對各種天然資源的胃口已經大到無法滿足。

“The demand from billions of people worldwide to consume energy isn’t slowing down,” said Adi Karev, the head of the oil and gas practice at the consultancy Deloitte in Hong Kong. “Companies’ ability to find new energy reserves, especially in remote locations, is altering the global market.”
香港Deloitte顧問公司石油及天然氣部門主管卡雷夫說：「全球數十億人口對能源的需求並未減緩。能源集團尋找新能源蘊藏的能力，尤其是在偏遠地區，正在改變全球市場。」

The opportunities are welcome in more ways than one. The new discoveries, including the so-called tar sands of Canada, are allowing Western companies like Royal Dutch Shell and BP to diversify and safeguard future production. State firms like Sinopec of China and Gazprom of Russia have slowly taken over production of their domestic reserves, leaving them in control of roughly 85 percent of the world’s oil resources, according to the Energy Information Administration.
這些機會以多種方式受到歡迎。包括加拿大油沙在內的新發現能源，使西方能源業者如荷蘭皇家殼牌石油、英國石油得以讓未來的生產多樣化並予以鞏固。美國能源資訊管理局指出，如中國大陸的中石化與俄羅斯天然氣公司等國營公司已逐漸接管國內的生產，讓它們大約掌控全球石油資源的85%。

The discoveries also are helping countries from the United States to Romania to decrease their dependence on foreign energy imports as well as generate tax revenue and employment.
新發現也使美國、羅馬尼亞等國家得以降低對進口能源的依賴，還可以增加稅收與就業機會。

In Poland, Chevron and other Western energy companies have been exploring there for shale gas, using many of the techniques pioneered in the United States. The potential reserves may provide Poland with enough gas for more than 50 years.
在波蘭，雪弗龍等西方能源公司利用多項在美國研發的最新技術探勘頁岩天然氣。潛在的蘊藏量可能足供波蘭使用50年以上。

The fossil fuel renaissance, however, has not been good news for every energy company. In the alternative sector, wind farms and solar panels now find it that much harder to compete. Analysts say electricity from wind farms off the coasts of Britain and Germany, for example, may cost six times as much compared with power plants that burn coal or natural gas.
不過，化石燃料的復興並非對所有能源公司而言都是好消息。以替代能源為例，風力發電廠與太陽能板生產業者已經發現，它們更難在市場上競爭。分析師舉例指出，英國與德國外海風力發電廠所生產的電力，成本可能高達燃燒煤或天然氣的火力發電廠的六倍。

In a bizarre twist, traditional oil and gas companies may come to the rescue of many green energy projects. Over the last 18 months, for example, the Spanish oil company Repsol and its Norwegian rival Statoil have announced investments in offshore wind projects across Northern Europe.
局面已經出現奇特的逆轉：傳統石油與天然氣公司可能扮演起許多綠能計畫的救星。過去一年半，西班牙雷普索爾石油公司與競爭對手挪威國家石油相繼宣布，投資於歐洲北部地區的多項海上風力發電計畫。

Still, with the outlook dimming for low-carbon energy sources, there are concerns that efforts to curb global greenhouse gas emissions will fail as countries look to new sources of fossil fuels.
然而部分人士認為，在低碳能源來源展望日益黯淡的局面下，抑制全球溫室氣體排放的努力極可能因為各國積極開發化石燃料來源而失敗。

“Finding new deposits doesn’t change the climate constraints facing the world,” said Dan Lashof, director of the climate center at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington. “We can’t continue to indefinitely burn fossil fuels.”
華府「自然資源保護會」氣候中心主任拉修夫說：「找到新的能源蘊藏不會改變地球面臨的氣候限制。我們不能就這麼一直燃燒化石燃料下去。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/business/energy-environment/quest-for-new-fossil-fuels-goes-to-africa-and-beyond.html

2012-04-24聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 陳世欽譯 原文參見紐時週報七版右