Shale gas is the same natural gas that is extracted in Russia; differences only lie in their deposits and purity of the extracted product. This gas is extracted from shale formations. In plain language, it is extracted from rock and fossil beds, which it is enough to just split and stratify. They presumably formed at the bottom of sea lagoons 450 million years ago out of plant and animal remains. These layers, in particular, are divided into flammable, clay and crystalline ones.  

There are lots of spheres of everyday application of shale rock. For example, shale rock is used for producing fire-resistant raw materials; in construction for external finish; well-known tiles also belong to the same shale rocks.

However, shale gas is extracted from those layers that lie very deep. Given the porous structure of shale rock, it is clear that, from the industrial point of view, gas is stored in them in small portions. Therefore, when pumping out large amounts of gas, many admixtures get into it. Today, experts believe that shale rock contains from 30 to 70 percent of methane used in households. Thus, the necessity to purify gas is added to the difficult process of its extraction. Currently, pure gas extracted from natural deposits, which form resembles big bubbles, is more profitable. According to the International Energy Agency IEA and independent consulting company in the field of energy ARI, in June 2013, the largest reserves of shale gas were located in the United States - about 32.875 billion cubic meters. China occupies second place: according to experts, it possesses 31.573 billion cubic meters o9f shale gas. In Europe, significant reserves of shale gas have been discovered in Austria, Great Britain, Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Ukraine and Poland. Russia stays only on the 9th place in this ranking, but it is far ahead of everybody in the list of possessors of shale oil. MORE