Schlumberger Limited. (SLB), Ultra Petroleum Corp. (UPL), Kinder Morgan Management, LLC (KMI): Why the Rest of the World Can’t Keep Up With America’s Energy Renaissance

In contrast, China has less than 27,000 miles of gas pipeline and a very segmented system that’s divided up between the national oil companies and local transmission companies. While the country has plans to almost double the size of its pipeline network by 2015, the entirety of this new system is sill less than Kinder Morgan Management, LLC (NYSE:KMI)‘s 62,000 miles of natural gas pipeline in North America alone.

Source: US Energy Information Administration.

The current pipeline system in China is built for 3.6 trillion cubic feet per year of production. China plans to produce almost double that number by 2020, so it will take a massive amount of infrastructure development to build an adequate gathering system.

What a Fool believes
The success of the U.S. energy renaissance has been due to a wide array of elements, and some of those elements have also put the U.S. ahead of the rest of the world in terms of shale gas production. This advantage won’t hold forever, though, and several companies are looking to get in on the ground floor in some of these newer shale plays. Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) (NYSE:RDS.A) plans to spend $1 billion a year to develop shale gas in China as part of a production sharing agreement with China National Petroleum, and 6% of Apache Corporation (NYSE:APA)‘s total petroleum production comes from shale deposits in Argentina.

Eventually, other countries will catch on, and perhaps the expertise we have developed in the States could be a valuable export. Until then, the U.S. will enjoy its decade head start.

The article Why the Rest of the World Can’t Keep Up With America’s Energy Renaissance originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Tyler Crowe has no position in any stocks mentioned. You can follow him at Fool.com under the handle TMFDirtyBird, on Google +, or on Twitter, @TylerCroweFool.The Motley Fool recommends Halliburton, Kinder Morgan, Ultra Petroleum, and Wells Fargo; owns shares of Apache, Kinder Morgan, Ultra Petroleum, and Wells Fargo; and has options on Ultra Petroleum.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.