Op-ed in the Economist: Will Shale gas find its place in today’s energy mix?

On June 3rd 2014, Benita Dreesen published an op-ed in the Economist, on the potential for shale gas and its role across different markets.

“In Europe shale gas remains very controversial; the limited experience to date of high-volume hydraulic fracturing at a large scale, leaves room for a lot of misinterpretation and assumptions. The environmental risks and potential impact draws a lot of attention from both environmental groups and the industry, albeit for different reasons. The good news is that the energy industry is responding very positively to increasing pressure by environmentalists by evolving to newer technologies to further reduce the overall environmental impact of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. With North America’s abundance in gas, Europe’s sputtering economy and Asia’s thirst for energy, shale gas could – if managed sustainably – become an important game changer redrawing the energy map around the world as other countries may follow suits.

But will it get that far and will shale gas become the new black gold? Nothing is sure. At least not for Europe where security of energy supply is a hugh issue and shale gas is raising hopes only in some of the EU-countries. It looks unlikely that this will really change the energy situation in the EU in the long term.”

Please click here to read the full article.