Waldemar Wojcik, Vice President of PGNiG, said on Wednesday that Polish Oil and Gas Company is strongly attracted to the exploration of shale gas.

“Between November and December, we want to start drilling in the vicinity of Wejherowo, and at the end of the first geophysical work in the Warsaw area, in the region of Plonsk,” said Wojcik.

For now, PGNiG has begun work on the bed I Markowola near Pulawy.  The company hold 13 of the 62 concessions that Poland has issued to prospect for gas shale.

Read more here (in Polish)

European states beyond Poland and Germany are looking into shale gas

Shale gas exploration is literally all over the map. In Europe, exploration operations are being undertaken in numerous countries, as shown by the presence at the recent Global Shale Gas Summit in Warsaw, Poland of several delegates from different European states that are surveying their shale gas potential.

One of them was Roland Vially, Senior Geologist & Advisor to the President at Institut Francais du Petrole. Of shale gas drilling in France, he said, “We are just at the beginning of the story as the first permits have been issued.”

He said that there were three main sedimentary basins in France, but that shale gas production is possible in the Southeast basin, in the vicinity of Grenoble. Making an appraisal, according to Vially, involves geological overview, and evaluation of the source rock, among others. He said, “I think it’s quite comparable to the Silurian shale in Poland, but not as good as the Barnett shale.”

Vially contended there may be a big contrast between drilling in Texas versus drilling in France. “I’m not sure if the local population can accept this type of landscape. How to manage a shale development in a tourist area is a big question. A much broader area is also necessary compared to a conventional gas field.”

“Now is just the beginning of exploration in France,” he explained.

“Drillers have to explain to the public what shale gas is and what they want to do. In two or three years they can do perhaps one or two wells. There is strong tourism activity in this area and they don’t want to lose this, but I don’t think the two are incompatible. We have to speak with the population as soon as possible, before the beginning of drilling.”

Vially also addressed the impact of shale drilling in France on water resources, noting the volume of water is a stumbling block.

“Social acceptance is the most difficult challenge for the shale gas industry. Societal acceptance is essential for sustainable development of shale gas in the basin of southeast,” he said.

Experts in the Netherlands are also surveying shale gas potentials.

Frank Van Bergen, Project Leader, Business Unit of Geoenergy at TNO Geological Survey of the Netherlands, spoke about a public domain study being conducted in the country to size up shale gas.

Van Bergen offered some context to the exploration of unconventionals in the Netherlands. “We are a small country but very rich in oil and especially in gas. The North Sea is a rather mature basin.”

He said a big question associated with developing shale gas was whether or not power plants in the Netherlands would be fuelled with coal or natural gas.

“Research and exploration is necessary to evaluate our unconventional resources,” he explained. “Shale gas and tight gas are going to be developed in the coming years. We’ve confirmed its presence.”

Van Bergen reported that three licenses had been handed out for hydrocarbon exploration in general. “We expect they’re on the lookout for unconventional resources.”

“There’s a strong need for data,” he said of the Netherlands. “There’s an open policy on oil & gas exploration to stimulate exploration. Small companies are in need of data, so were trying to bring the data into the public domain.”

“We have more than 5,000 boreholes,” said Van Bergen, “along with numerous reports on reservoir parameters, gas composition, etc.”

He identified the site in question as Namurian shale and said well penetrations showed shale deposits up to 2000 meters thick. The Posidonia Formation in the Netherlands he said was 30-60 meters thick and a proven source for shale oil, and likely for gas.

“Is there actually gas in this formation?” asked Van Bergen. “A study showed it has only a limited potential for thermogenic gas, but most mud logs show gas, so it’s probably biogenic generated gas.”

He added, “In terms of depth, thickness, and temperature it is similar to Barnett shale, but the GIIP of Barnett shale is 5-10 times higher.”

Van Bergen said there is speculation as to whether the site can be developed, because of its proximity to major population centers. “This is where Rotterdam, the Hague and Amsterdam are so there’s an issue with population and we would need some technical solutions to be able to develop shale gas.”

“Can it be fractured?” he asked. “We don’t know.”

Specific challenges include the mining law, according to Van Bergen, and that the state owns all subsurface resources. The Netherlands also has public acceptance issues regarding shale gas drilling.

“There’s a strong indication of ample unconventional resources, but we need to do more work,” he explained. “It will probably take the next generation production technology to be able to access shale gas. We need a least a decade for maturing these resources.”

“Conventional resources are fairly large,” added Van Bergen. “Our ministry is aware of shale gas development and knows of the challenges. It will be a business approach and within the existing context there’s a possibility to develop that.”

When asked if rig availability was also among the challenges, Van Bergen said that the Netherlands is aiming for the same market and enterprises that Poland is, so there would be competition.

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Surface use constraints present a challenge for shale gas in ‘old’ Europe

Poland may have vastly greater potential for developing the shale gas industry, but for other countries and players in Europe the issues they face are the same.

For that reason, Marion Kaisinger, Legal Advisor at Austrian energy firm OMV said, “Thanks for being interested in a country smaller than Poland.”

In her talk to delegates at the Global Shale Gas Summit in Warsaw, Poland, Ms. Kaisinger, who is in charge of the environmental and legal aspects of upstream activities at OMV, pledged to speak about the Austrian shale gas experience in regards to Surface Use Constraints & Regulatory Procedures in European Countries.

First, she talked about OMV and its equity in other Central European energy companies like Romania’s Petrom, mentioned OMV’s involvement in the Nabucco natural gas pipeline project, as well as her company’s vast natural gas underground storage capabilities.

Of shale gas drilling operations in Austria and in Europe, Ms. Kaisinger queried, “What does this mean from a regulatory perspective?” This led her to outlining the legal framework in Austria for exploration and production operations.

She proposed, “Let’s try to look at our experiences [in Austria] and see what it could mean for unconventionals.”

Kaisinger said that in this regard Austria has a broad legislative basis in addition to European legislation, that there are pre-EU laws in existence as well as provincial regulation like landscape protection

“The Mineral Resources Law covers all the mineral resources of Austria, which causes problems because it covers conventional mining as well as that of hydrocarbons; it also covers people water and environment, making it a sort of one-stop-shop procedure.”

In addition to noise protection, Kaisinger spoke about water protection laws: “Water enjoys a very stringent protection law that is 50 years old, which is difficult to believe. The authorities must be consulted when large quantities of water are used in mining.”

In regards to local nature protection, she said drilling developments also require permission. Kaisinger added, “There is a chance for a single window approach.”

“Over certain production capacities an environmental assessment must be completed. While there is a one-stop shop approach there, the challenges include the definition of and changes to projects, like stakeholder involvement.”

Ms. Kaisinger also spoke of the surface concerns at a concession where OMV expects a pending shale gas development. “It’s a populated area,” she said, “and you can imagine that the closer you get to Vienna, the higher the population density. It’s also an agricultural area.”

According to her, huge swaths of lower Austria are landscape protection areas.

“One of the main challenges that I see is noise protection – this gets increasingly important the more permanent operations you get in one area. So the industry really needs to look into it. We are looking at rural areas where the present existing noise is low. There are exceptions for short-term developments.”

Emissions restrictions, water protection and waste management must also be considered, according to Kaisinger. While land is owned by individuals, including the right to ground water, ownership excludes the rights to hydrocarbons. She said, “Operators must seek mutual agreements with the landowners.”

“Water supply could be an issue,” she said of shale gas operations, “but due to our strict regulations it would make efficiency and recycling imperative.”

“Service industries must protect groundwater when doing fracing,” added Kaisinger. “We need to reduce the footprint and certain substances might not be usable and we might need to use substitutes.”

Ms. Kaisinger summed up, “I think it’s a challenge for unconventionals to work within the confines of European regulations.”

Copyright Natural Gas for Europe. This article or portions thereof may be use with proper attribution and linking to NGFE.

The European Union’s top energy official has urged Ukraine to reform its natural gas transit and trade practices to avoid disruptions of Russian deliveries to Europe.

The EU has sought more transparent and commercial terms for how gas is traded between Russia and Ukraine.

The two nations’ payment disputes halted European gas deliveries in early 2009. The EU has said that trade was more about politics than commerce.
EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said Tuesday that Ukraine should allow international players to invest in the upgrade of its outdated pipelines. The sprawling network carries 80 percent of Russian gas exports to Europe.

Oettinger pledged to provide financial aid and expertise to create an “efficient, transparent and well managed energy sector” in Ukraine.

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek

Mr. Kamlesh Parmar, Country Manager – Lane Energy Poland Sp.z o.o, today confirmed to Natural Gas for Europe, that the #1LE Lebien well had reached total depth.

The Łebień LE1 well, located in the onshore Baltic Basin region of northern Poland, is targeted at the Silurian and Ordovician shales.

Lane Energy Poland is the operator, in association with ConocoPhillips.

In August 2009, Lane, a subsidiary of 3Legs Resources plc., entered into an agreement ConocoPhillips, under which the parties will jointly evaluate the potential of Lane Energy Poland’s six Baltic Basin licences covering an area of ~1 million acres (approximately 4,000 square kilometres).

Source: 3Legs Resources

If the number of articles in the international media is anything to go by, Poland is an ‘eager beaver’ when it comes to developing its shale gas potential. But whether it has the gumption to actually sink its teeth into the industry is another question.

At the Global Shale Gas Summit in Warsaw, Poland a representative of the Polish government told how responsible Polish ministries and the business community were going about nurturing the country’s shale gas potential.

The Head of the Natural Gas Division at Poland’s Ministry of Economy, Malgorzata Szymanska, assigned to speak on Understanding Legal & Regulatory Frameworks & Outlining what Government & Industry are Doing to Realize the Potential for Shale Gas in Poland, was a bit short on specifics at this time, perhaps because at present natural gas does not comprise a huge slice of Poland’s energy mix pie.

“The share of natural gas in the energy mix of Poland is not more than 13%,” said Szymanska, “and the use of natural gas is not very popular. Compared with other EU countries this is a big difference and thus there is a huge room for manoeuvring.”

She said that Poland’s natural gas usage is so small because its use in producing electricity is not that high. But the natural gas the country does use is largely imported.

“We consider our level of dependence on external supplies to be 73%,” reported Szymanska. “We have our own natural gas reserves, and we produce about one third of our own domestic supply.”

Some change, she said, may be occurring as prospects for shale gas in Poland open up.

“In 2008 most of our gas came from Russia (almost 50%), with almost 30% being indigenous. Since January 2009 we have been in deliberation on gas supplies to Poland from the Russian Federation and we need to achieve consensus with the European Commission on this.”

“Every four years the Ministry of Economy is preparing a forecast on usage and supply, so we can adjust this policy as new possibilities are raised.”

According to Szymanska, in March of next year the Polish government plans on implementing a Natural Gas Act, which would cover security of supply and protect customers, as well as an act that would require Poland to maintain gas reserves. She said that Poland’s Ministries of the Economy State Treasury and Environment, along with the Energy Regulator Office, all deal with natural gas matters in Poland.

She listed the country’s main natural gas projects like building a connection with Western Europe through the Czech Republic, connection with the German system, expanding capacity to supply gas to Ukraine, and development of the Swinoujscie LNG terminal in Poland, adding that her country could access EU funds until 2014-15 to expand existing natural gas capacity to 2.5 billion cubic meters.

As part of an Action Plan for 2010, the Government aims to develop competition mechanisms, strategize on how to lose gas price fixing, and protect domestic customers in Poland who are sensitive to price changes.

In terms of shale gas development in Poland, the Government appears to be relying on the industrial sector to push things forward.

“We’d like to identify the problems and compile a list of barriers to be tackled by the administration in cooperation with the gas sector,” said Szymanska. “Over 30 companies are present on the market to help us identify the barriers,” which she said included environmental, water supply, and nature conservation concerns.

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“I would like to apologize for giving more questions than answers,” said the European Commission’s Michael Schuetz, Policy Officer, Indigenous Fossil Fuels, Directorate-General for Energy.

Mr. Schuetz spoke at the Global Shale Gas Summit in Warsaw, Poland about EU Energy Policies & the Potential for Shale Gas in Europe to provide insight into the European Union’s energy policy and to raise some questions.

“Why do we care about natural gas?” he asked. “Basically it is used in every sector of our economy, power generation, for heating our homes and it keeps our industry running.”

“For the foreseeable future,” noted Schuetz, “it will remain an important part of our energy mix. We have seen in recent years a decline in indigenous production and an increasing import dependency that will rise.

According to Schuetz, Europe is mainly reliant on three suppliers: Russia, Norway and Algeria. But there are still advantages to using it.

“Natural gas is relatively climate friendly, and has a low carbon intensity, so it’s important for the transition to a low carbon economy.” He said the EU’s policy aims at drastic cuts in CO2 levels by 2050.

Schuetz admitted that a rise in indigenous natural gas production, via renewable sources like shale gas, could increase the reliability of supply in Europe.

He said, “EU Energy policy is working to ensure that business and consumers obtain safe, secure and sustainable energy at competitive prices. Environmental concerns are high priority but also energy supply has to be in line with our climate change goals.”

The EU’s second strategic energy review, said Schuetz, which was published in 2008, recognized the potential that unconventional resources could have, but emphasized both economical and environmental viability.

He listed the Commission’s energy policy priorities, saying “We don’t plan to revolutionize energy policy. First and foremost we have to implement the internal energy market, security of supply, the Renewables Directive, the EU Energy Strategy 2011-2020, Energy Infrastructure Package, Efficiency Action Plan, External Energy Relations and the Decarburization Roadmap 2050 (which covers electricity production, transport).”

Regarding shale gas production in Europe, Schuetz was frank: “The Commission is still in the assessment process. I was glad that the industry appears to be thinking over many questions that need to be resolved.”

“It would increase our security of supply, reduce our emissions and since it’s indigenous would bring economic growth. It can revolutionize the market and have implications for the global market – for example, LNG has been freed up recently.”

“But,” he continued, “The prospects for unconventionals are unclear. We have to further analyze that potential, and assess environmental aspects.”

“It doesn’t look so good for Europe at first sight. It is a relatively small – only 4% of unconventional resources would be located in Europe, and according to the International Energy agency unconventional gas could supply 8-10% of Europe’s gas demand in 2030.”

Schuetz added, “It will not be a revolution most likely, and Poland will not become a gas exporter. There’s been some speculation that Poland could become an exporter for Russia, but I do not foresee this.”

Further, he said that it is a question whether or not the shale gas industry will be open to sharing exploration results as Poland’s shale gas potential would only likely be known in 5-6 years. According to Schuetz other unconventional gas sources like coal bed methane, which could be better for the European market because of the acceptance of coalmining in Europe, should not be forgotten.

“What will be crucial is properly addressing environmental impact,” he said of shale gas. “We [in Europe] are much more densely populated than the US and citizens must be assured that shale gas drilling can be done in an environmentally sound way.”

Schuetz noted the backlash in the US over the documentary film about shale gas drilling, Gasland and said that the environmental consequences of shale gas production have suddenly become an issue there. “The industry needs to proactively inform and consult citizens beforehand, but not lecture them,” he said.

At a recent shale gas conference he attended in Amsterdam, he recalled the issue of securing wells was brushed aside by participants who said ‘don’t worry, we know what we’re doing’. Schuetz replied: “That’s not an answer that citizens in Europe will accept.”

“The less impact on nature, the more likely you can achieve public acceptance. Although 99% of fracing fluid may be sand and water, the remaining 1% may be very toxic, according to the public,” he contended. “You may be drilling much deeper but you still have to drill through aquifers.”

In closing his talk, Schuetz posed questions to all the Global Shale Gas Summit conference delegates in attendance for discussion, including how to get more precise and publicly available information on the reserves, how transparent the industry is in its willingness to be open in respect to environmental impact, and how to ensure that affected communities/regions benefit from unconventional gas activities.

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North American regulator pledges to address risks in shale gas development

“Maybe we can teach you more what not to do than what to do,” said Mike Smith, Executive Director of the Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission, a 75 year old charter organization of state regulators which represents all oil & gas production in the US and Canada. establishing protocols to have one-stop shopping and provide regulatory certainty, etc.

“It has been a very successful model in establishing that regulatory history which is now 75 years old,” he noted.

In reference to how state regulators in the US are regulating the shale gas industry Mr. Smith’s talk  at the Global Shale Gas Summit in Warsaw, Poland centered around the main risk issues for state regulators in the US. He pledged to show how his organization is addressing those and how they’re evolving, in hopes that the Polish shale gas industry could learn from the US example.

“We’ve been learning more and more about it. It’s offered more and more to our gas and now to our oil reserves,” he said.

Mr. Smith explained that the Commission is comprised of 38 states, as well as associate member states. “And we also have international affiliate members,” he explained, “who participate with us but can’t vote. We are the regulators.”

In the US, he said, the states are the ones that have jurisdiction over shale gas; the federal government regulates operations on federal and tribal lands, but everything else is handled by the states.

“We’re on the cutting edge,” said Smith, “as we work with landowners and other interested groups to make sure the regulations are fair and sound.”

In his presentation, Mr. Smith showed images of the shale plays in the US and Canada. “The granddaddy of the shale play is the Barnett,” he said, “where the puzzle is being solved mainly by George Mitchell and his colleagues out of Houston, who showed you can produce shale gas through horizontal drilling.”

Smith continued, “The Barnett is very mature compared to others, and is very close to Ft. Worth and Dallas, so operations are purchasing leases from homeowners, in commercial districts, and near the airport, so you might imagine that a lot of care must be taken from an environmental and regulatory standpoint.”

He noted the overwhelming success shale gas has added to US gas supplies, showing a graph that illustrated shale gas production’s steep increase in contributing to reserves from 2004-2010, especially from operations in the Gulf Coast and into Texas at the Barnett, Fayetteville and Haynesville shales.

Despite the growth, Smith admitted that three major problems need to be solved, the first of which involves water.

“There’s a real problem,” he remarked. “First of all, quantity, quality and how you dispose of it – all unique challenges. While 99.5% of frac fluid may be water and sand, the chemical additives are the second challenge.”

Smith added, “The quality of water has been a real challenge. There are multiple and competing uses for potable water and there’s nearly never enough to go around. It’s needed for agriculture, industry and then you add in oil & gas. It can take 20 million liters for a frac job.”

Smith raised the question of whether the industry could use lesser quality water and noted the studies being done to see if brackish water might be used.

“Lastly, the disposal of that water,” he said. “There’s work being done to re-use frac water. There are two choices – using an underground control well (of which there are few in the East), and so the other possibility is a municipal water treatment facility, which is not designed to handle this kind of water.”

The chemical part of it, which Smith said comprises 0.5% – is also a factor. “How toxic is it, what kind of problems if these compounds escape confinement? If there’s a casing failure, what happens and how deleterious are these for human exposure, what does it mean for your water?”

He continued, “What’s there, how’s it used, will it affect my drinking water? The Environmental Protection Agency requires a data sheet which lists all those chemicals and their percentages. Each operator has its own ‘secret sauce’ which works best in a particular area in which their drilling. So there’s been controversy on that as well as water use.”

“Our organization is working with the EPA to determine what the risks are to the water supply. The public is concerned about these and rightfully so. We’re certainly working diligently to determine how they should be handled,” he said.

Surface disturbance is also a concern in connection with shale gas drilling operations.

“Heavy drill equipment, activities that make a lot of noise, and can emit odor – they’re short term and then we have a much smaller surface when the well is in production. People are concerned as these are happening where people aren’t used to oil & gas activity. It’s a cause for concern to them, especially if they’ve got a farming operation, when the noise is going to abate.”

Smith said that technology is helping the industry, in that one drilling platform with several laterals can localize surface disturbance. “It saves us all money if we can do it faster.”

“Most of these problems are being solved,” he explained, “and rapidly through increases in technology. One of the big challenges that regulators have is that their rules and inspections they have to perform keep up with the technology.”

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Patience can lead to a pay off

In the shale gas industry, there may be no “sure thing” but an effective partnership and some patience can sometimes lead to a big payoff.

Just ask Al Holcomb, Vice President of Strategic Planning at Lewis Energy Group, who spoke about his company’s operations at the Eagle Ford play in south Texas, which was much less than an immediate success until the company found a match made in shale gas heaven.

On the first day of the Global Shale Gas Summit in Warsaw, Poland, Holcomb recounted that Lewis Energy had been in South Texas for 20 years, operating over 2000 wells in the Olmos shale basin, which achieved only very slow production growth.

“It was sort of an unsettling situation for us,” he said.

Then a couple of years ago, Lewis Energy was struggling and searched for answers.

“In mid 2008 we really needed something new in our exploration and production business. Worse yet, we were also experiencing a major climb in gas and oil prices, so that year was not looking great for us, but we knew of this Eagle Ford shale basin and had even tried drilling there unsuccessfully in 2003-4 with horizontal wells and small fracs.”

That year, said Holcomb, Lewis paired up with an energy firm called Petrohawk Energy Corporation, which was able to stimulate the site effectively with a horizontal frac.

“Thankfully for us,” he explained, “we held 300,000 acres in the play. We realized we did not have the in-house technical experience, so we stayed patient and watched Petrohawk and approached them with the idea of entering a joint venture; they only had 2% of our entire acreage, but they contributed their skill to our joint venture as an operator.”

Holcomb said it was a learning experience for Lewis Energy, who carefully watched Petrohawk as they completed their drilling with a 14-stage frac in August of 2009.

“Our strategy at Eagle Ford was to wait, watch and to learn from the experienced shale gas developers. We then wanted to move forward with cautious optimism.”

Lewis Energy’s wait-and-see strategy at Eagle Ford paid off.

Holcomb explained “The well paid out the US$ 5 million well cost in the first six months. We we’re happy and had learned a lot. When we began drilling our own wells, we found we’d avoided a lot of the pain and the cost in conquering that learning curve.”

And at the end of last year Lewis Energy entered another joint venture, this time with BP. “To gain a strong and experienced partner to assist us in developing part of our play,” said Holcomb, “we also needed to generate capital to balance our own development. We plan to drill 2,500 wells in the next 15 or so years.”

Now, he said, Lewis Energy is looking for other joint venture opportunities at Eagle Ford, a site which has provided a bevy of experience and know-how for application at other shale plays across the globe.

“These are truly the new thing in our industry,” said Holcomb. “We have new information pouring in from established plays in the US and from newly emerging ones, like exciting new plays in Poland. It is critically important for us to exchange new ideas and experience to find the safest and commercially successful practices for its success here in Poland.”

One of the handful of Shale Gas Conference delegates assigned to speak in a session entitled Partnerships & Cost-Reduction Strategies for Expanding Cost-Competitive Shale Gas Production Beyond the USA, posed a question to those in attendance.

“How do we take an American-based industry model and apply it somewhere where the oil & gas industry is evolving?” asked John Buggenhagen, Vice President of Exploration at San Leon Energy PLC.

“In North America it was the small companies who made it happen,” he said of successful shale gas operations.

Established in 2008, San Leon Energy is an amalgamation of several companies and is growing continuously; one example of that is its recent acquisition of Island Oil & Gas who have operations in the North Sea.

In Poland, Mr. Buggenhagen said San Leon was excited to be partnering with Talisman Energy. “Our presence in Poland is very critical in its development,” he said. “Here we can take a 10-year time line and make it into a two year timeline.”

Buggenhagen showed the audience a map illustrating the big changes which have happened at shale sites in Poland from 2006 to the present. Today, he showed, all of the land has been licensed by oil & gas enterprises. San Leon, said Buggenhagen, made its first license applications for eastern and western development plots in 2008.

“So the current status is that it is essentially completely leased,” he said of Poland’s Silurian shale. “Development has taken off and the reality will be seen through the drill bit.”

“It’s great were talking about the challenges,” added Buggenhagen, who said that San Leon wants to diversify their position with presence across the basin, to take advantages of others going forward.

Following their individual presentations to the audience, that morning’s group of Global Shale Gas Summit speakers fielded questions from their colleagues in the audience, the most important of which might be whether or not the industry players coming to Poland will work together and share their experiences to push shale gas drilling forward.

San Leon Energy’s John Buggenhagen said, indeed, there is cooperation between the companies. “There’s little history of the oil & gas industry in Poland, so it’s a question of how we can utilize the limited services in the coming years to prove this play. ‘Shooting the seismic’ is how all these companies will be able to prove their commitment.”

He said Poland was unique in that it has a requirement that companies cooperate on the regulatory environment, to get a consistent opinion on moving forward.

“We’ve made progress here in Poland already,” said Wieslaw Prugar, President and CEO of Orlen Upstream, “by creating a small group of players, and a platform, not to share all of the information, but to cooperate on developing shale plays and to utilize towards the government in terms of the regulatory environment, etc. If the geology will be proven, expectations are likely to rise very rapidly.”

Prugar reported that according to regulations, drilling operators in Poland have to share their data up to a certain point, but that authorities need to beef up enforcement of the rule.

“Generally, the principle is there – all of us having the licenses are obliged to report to the ministry of the environment and the data is shared. Probably from a commercial point of view it’s hard to share those things, but industry is smart enough to realize that a shale gas play requires a certain degree of momentum, so if we don’t encourage players to come, it won’t happen. This requires a certain degree of information sharing.”

Government has been working on changing mining and geological law, he added.

“The level of cooperation between industry players will be unique,” contended Glynn Ellis, Manager, New Business from Shell’s Global Exploration division. “It’s in nobody’s interest to stay in a play that’s not going to be commercial.”

However, the CEO of Eurogas Inc, Wolfgang Rauball said he thought the European situation was totally different than that of the US. “As much as I’d like to see sharing of information, I have my doubts. I’ve queried a competitor about their experience and the answer was ‘it’s a secret’.”

He added “The major oil companies from the US will at least be able to give us the answer, yes or no or maybe.”

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