Exploration • Drilling • Field Services
Shale gas in Europe; the balance between technology, policy and public support
Fig. 1. Drilling for shale gas in Poland.
Ascertaining the future of shale gas in the European market is no mean feat. Louise Smyth asks the sector’s experts to separate fact from fiction in the debate surrounding shale and to reveal their short- and medium-term plans.
Determinar el futuro de los yacimientos de gas en el mercado europeo no será tarea fácil. Louise Smyth pide a los expertos del sector a separar el hecho de la ficción en el debate sobre los yacimientos y a revelar sus planes a corto y a medio plazo.
Die Zukunft von Schiefergas auf dem europäischen Markt lässt sich nur schwer vorhersagen. Louise Smyth bittet die Experten der Branche, in der Debatte um Schiefer Wahrheit und Fiktion zu trennen und ihre kurz- und mittelfristigen Pläne zu erläutern.
W
hen the CEO of a large oil and gas company goes on record saying “we do not think that shale will play a part in
the short- and medium-term in Europe,” the scale of the hurdles surrounding shale gas exploration is evident. While giving his rather controversial
recent speech, Helge Lund of Statoil did point out that some of his opinions are at odds with the executives of other major oil and gas producers. However, the reasoning behind Lund’s negative outlook is sound logic: he believes that the lack of public and political support for shale gas, coupled with the population density in Europe, will hamper efforts in the near future. And with BP ruling itself out of shale gas drilling in the UK (in February 2014), the Swede is in good company – for that particular market anyway. Unlike the notable and continuing success of shale in the USA (a region that’s far bigger and less well populated than Europe), the story in Europe can
thus far be summed up as ‘complicated’. Just contrasting two individual countries’ approaches illustrates the diversity of the situation. In the UK, ‘fracking’ has been surrounded by extreme amounts of controversy and drama; but against that backdrop there are government ministers proclaiming that the UK economy could benefit from shale gas to the tune of £33 billion. Meanwhile, over in the Netherlands (which has traditionally been a big producer of natural gas), things have effectively been put on the backburner for the time being, as the government won’t even decide whether or not to allow drilling until 2015. It’s clear that mentioning ‘Europe’ as if it were all one cohesive market for shale is not particularly helpful, as conditions vary wildly between the countries that comprise Europe. Tis issue of isolated markets is also emphasised by the fact that the gas pipeline network in the EU is a long way off being complete – in many cases the infrastructure between countries is almost non-existent.
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