Brussels, 12/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - Paris has re-affirmed the ban in France on shale gas extraction. The European Commission is due to propose a legislative framework on shale gas this autumn.
The day after his remarks supporting the extraction of “ecological” shale gas in a “public national company”, France's Minister for Industrial Recovery Arnaud Montebourg was brought back into line by Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who recalled on Thursday 11 July that it was “not permitted to exploit shale gas in France”, saying that “this position will of course be maintained”.
Banned in France since mid-2011 due to the environmental risk, hydraulic fracturing (fracking) - the only technique that currently exists to extract shale gas or oil - is not, however, banned everywhere in the European Union. At the current time, Europe - which has estimated shale reserves of between 3,000 and 12 trillion m3 - is acting in piecemeal fashion on this issue. Although shale gas exploitation has contributed to economic recovery in the USA, its environmental risk concerns the 28 EU member states.
Currently, there is also a ban in Bulgaria. Caution is the current trend in the Netherlands, where there is a moratorium on drilling while an enquiry is conducted into the risks. The same type of assessment is under way in Belgium. The Czech Republic is working on a moratorium to suspend research projects for two years. Italy gives assurances that shale gas is not part of its national strategy.
By contrast, shale gas extraction is authorised and research licences have been granted in Poland, Spain, the UK, Hungary and Romania. Lithuania voted on a law at the end of May which paves the way to an exploration and extraction contract with the American energy company Chevron. While they remain reluctant about fracking, Sweden and Demark have issued several licences for exploration.
Germany for the moment has no drilling or licences, but its Chancellor Angela Merkel is not totally opposed to fracking, repeating that it must be proved to be free of any risks and that limits must be set on the practice. In Austria, an environmental impact study must be carried out before any exploratory drilling.
The shale gas battle is currently raging in the decision-making ranks of the EU, where - led by Poland which has the biggest reserves on the continent - Spain, Romania, the UK and Lithuania are fighting for the free exploitation of their resources and against any binding European legislation that would increase the costs of extraction. The European Commission is due to propose a legislative framework this autumn. Commission President José Manuel Barroso and European Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger look quite favourably at controlled exploitation, at the environmental level, of unconventional gas. (EH/transl.fl)