Financial Times: Ukraine’s drive for shale gas lacks some vital parts

New gas production in Europe is not, for all the chitchat about “diversification” and “security” at one conference or another, considered a necessity. A necessity, for example, is finding a way not to embarrass the Spanish government in public, so that its cabinet will not further delay making a request for help in devising a financial stability programme.

Over time, though, European leaders may find keeping the lights on at less than extortionate prices and terms is more important than some Spanish minister’s amour propre. Yet the continental discussions over whether, or how quickly, to allow drilling for gas from shale rocks has the desultory air of hungover playboys debating lunch plans.

In contrast, Ukraine, with its famously murky, where not obviously corrupt, politics, and reputation for unstable energy policy, seems lately to have become rather more focused on getting new domestic supplies, and getting them fast. The collapse of natural gas prices in the US over the past two years is giving Ukraine an opening to leapfrog Europe in the development of “unconventional” gas from shale and coal beds.  MORE