International Energy Agency to Set Shale Rules

The International Energy Agency, a regulatory body for energy worldwide, will set recommendations for shale gas regulations in Autumn, its Deputy Executive Director Richard Jones has said.

Speaking at a conference in Geneva, Mr. Jones said that a "golden age of gas" required regulation.

"If you're going to have golden gas, you have to have golden rules," Reuters reports the Deputy Executive Director as saying.

While the agency was working to ensure safe working practices and procedures in relation to shale activities and hydraulic fracturing, the IEA would not require member states to sign contracts yet, he said.

"We feel that a number of countries inside and outside the IEA are interested in improving these technologies, and this is something where we're working with them to collectively see what rules make sense. But we're not talking about trying to negotiate any kind of a contract, at least not at this stage."

Twenty-eight countries are currently members of the IEA, set up in 1974 to mediate on the 1973/74 oil crisis. 

Members include the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Poland, as well as 17 other European states.