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Figure 9: One of the “sky lights” (a 30-meter-long tube) to burn away coalmine methane for nothing
and utilizes CBM/CMM disregarding the barrier of overlapping mining rights and at the same time put into efforts to open up new markets. Doing so will violate the Mineral Resources Law, and will be complained by central enterprises, but it has better economic, environmental and social benefits. The second option is that enterprise does not retrieve and use CBM/CMM in advance, but directly emit coalmine gas to exploit coal. Though it does not directly violate the Mineral Resources Law, it causes resource waste and environmental pollution, and violates the CBM/CMM emission standard and national policy of extracting gas first, exploiting coal second. According to Wang Zhilin, a lawyer participated in the research of Shanxi’s exploration and utilization of CBM, many coal mines had to choose the second option owning to technology and funding problem. When conducting the research, they often saw that some coal mines connect the seam with “sky lights” (a 30-meter-long tube) to burn away coal mine methane. The development of CBM industry From central ministerial officials, local government officials, senior executives of central enterprises to senior managers of local coal enterprises, all hold that China’s CBM industry develops slowly and did not reach
the goal of the 11th Five-Year Plan. The major reason is the separation of coal mining right and CBM mining right and the lack of a governance system to determine those rights. Chen Xianda, Deputy Direct General of the Department of Geological Exploration of the Ministry of Land and Resources pointed out “the multiple mining rights of CBM and coal resources have detrimental effects on the exploration of the two energies and the development of both industries.” 23 Tan Chuanrong, Chairman of Shanxi Tongyu Coalbed Methane Distribution Company, which is the investor of Duanshi-Jincheng-Boai CBM pipeline, mentioned that the pipeline is on the list of the nation’s key CBM exploration and utilization projects. It is China’s first inter-provincial pipeline, and the gas supplier is CUCM. But owning to the multiple mining rights, CUCM can only supply 300 million cubic meters of gas, which is far less than 2 billion cubic meters, which is the capacity of the pipeline. According to Tan Chuanrong,“the CBM supplied by CUCM has always been insufficient to meet the demand of the gas pipeline transmission capacity. The root lies in the fact that those enterprises which own