‘Fracking’ could free Europe from Russia’s stranglehold on gas, says UK politician
Nicholas Soames, a United Kingdom Member of Parliament, told delegates at broker Marsh’s National Oil Companies Conference in Dubai last month, that the U.S. investment in the new method of deep-shale, gas-extraction—known as ‘fracking’—means that by 2020 it could source 60% of its gas domestically.
“If this came to pass, it would make the U.S. the world’s largest gas producer,” Mr. Soames, a Senior Advisor to Marsh, told the audience.
Mr. Soames said that the challenge for Europe is made clear by a recently published report from the International Energy Agency. It forecast that by 2030, assuming no change in government policies, world primary energy demand will grow by 40% over 2007 levels.
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“In Europe’s case, respected authorities have been insisting this would mean that heavy dependence on Russian gas will increase, raising security fears and boosting the search for alternative pipeline supplies from Central Asia and the Middle East,” he said.
According to the politician, however, gas deposits, accessible using ‘fracking’, have been identified in Europe, and that new technology could make these deposits economically viable, and are ‘environmentally unobtrusive.’
Big deposits on a commercial scale have been located, and in some cases are already being developed, in Poland, Austria, Hungary, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom, said Mr. Soames.
“The process lags behind the American gas boom but the implications are clear. In a few years, it has the potential to make Europe increasingly self-sufficient in gas, lessening its reliance on Russia for Western Europe’s gas supply,” he told delegates.
And Mr. Soames pointed out that this development could mean that plans for new gas pipelines that avoid Russia, and bring gas from Central Asia and the Caspian region to Europe, mostly through Turkey, look ‘far less urgent.’
