ACTMedia: EU official: shale gas el dorado out of Europe's reach

A senior European Commission official has poured cold water on claims that a shale gas boom in Europe would result in de-facto low gas prices.  Speaking the day before the European Commission unveiled the preliminary results of a public consultation on the issue, Robin Miege, director of strategy at the European Commission’s DG Environment, said that while shale gas was a "game-changer" in the United States, bringing energy prices to their lowest level in a decade, conditions in Europe were rather different and would not necessarily be replicated.

With Europe's energy prices over twice the US levels, unconventional fossil fuels are climbing higher up the European policy agenda. The results of the public consultation, which were presented by the Commission's environment directorate on 7 June, showed that over half of the respondents were favourable to the development of shale gas in Europe.  

Consultation overtaken by Poland

The interest group Shale Gas Europe said on Twitter that the findings represented “a balanced outcome regarding [the] development of unconventionals."Responses from Poland, which hopes to develop unconventional hydrocarbons to lessen dependency on Russian gas imports, represented over half of the total (11,714 out of 22,122 individuals) and overall were very supportive of shale gas.  MORE