In the 21 st century, the shale gas is a greatly potential unconventional gas resource, which can serve as an important complement to conventional energy sources, and can effectively alleviate the energy pressure of the world. The development of shale gas in the USA is in the developing stage with advanced exploitation technology and huge reserves. Compared with the USA, the development of shale gas in China is still in the early stage. The development of shale gas is both an opportunity and a challenge. Chinais in the exploration and preparation stage of resource assessment and exploration. This paper presents the importance of the formation principle of shale gas and the energy application, and compares the progress of shale gas studies, exploitation technology as well as the study hot-points betweenChinaand theUSA. Meanwhile, this paper states the difficulties and challenges with the development of shale gas inChina.
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