European countries should make a push to start producing shale gas if they hope to reduce reliance on Russian natural gas, Britain’s energy minister said on Monday. “There are a number of European countries that are extremely dependent on Russian gas,” Britain’s Minister of State for Business and Energy Michael Fallon told Reuters. “Europe has to reduce that dependence, to improve its connectivity, to look at encouraging more diverse sources of supply of gas … and more generally to encourage indigenous sources of production of at least shale gas.” --Reuters, 6 May 2014
The Ukraine crisis has become a “wake-up call” for European governments on the need to develop local energy resources, including natural gas from shale, U.K. Energy Minister Michael Fallon said. The use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to tap shale reserves that could meet demand for decades would provide greater security of supply at a time when Russia has threatened to curb gas shipments needed to power European economies, he said in an interview in Houston yesterday. --Bradley Olson, Bloomberg, 6 May 2014
Britain’s fracking industry is being held back by environmental regulations drawn up in Brussels, a senior committee of the House of Lords is expected to say this week. In a major report, the Lords are expected to call for permits to be granted more quickly to drilling companies to allow them to test the potential of newly drilled shale gas wells. The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, whose members include the former Conservative chancellor, Lord Lawson of Blaby, is expected to conclude that it is impossible to know what the UK’s shale reserves will be worth without more widespread fracking. --Tim Ross, The Daily Telegraph, 5 May 2014
Vadimir Putin, the ruler of Russia, wants to ban fracking in other countries. He is very concerned about their environments. If you frack, Putin told a global economic conference last year, “black stuff comes out of the tap.” The fact that Kremlin opposition to European fracking has nothing to do with environmental concerns should be clear even to the dullest among us, because Russia has massive fracking projects of its own underway in Siberia. The real goal is to keep Europe dependent upon Russia for its fuel supply. Natural-gas prices in Europe are quadruple those prevailing in the United States, and by maintaining a near-monopoly on overpriced European natural-gas imports, the Putin regime assures itself of a vast source of revenue. This allows it to rule and rearm Russia without permitting the freedom necessary to develop the country’s human potential. --Robert Zubrin, National Review Online, 5 May 2014
In the current crisis over Ukraine, a question has arisen as to whether we can help our European allies by shipping them LNG. The answer is “yes and no.” We do not have any terminals ready to begin exports; the first LNG exports will be loaded from the Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana late next year and will be shipped to Asia. Nor does Europe have enough receiving terminals. But the Europeans argue strongly that the mere presence of the United States as a player in the natural gas export business will have a huge impact on the world market, signaling that we are on the way and, hopefully, warning Russia that its captive gas customers in eastern and central Europe are looking at alternatives, and want to throw off the yoke of dependence on Russia. --Llewellyn King, OilPrice, 5 May 2014
Even as it faces increased regulatory scrutiny at home, America’s dirty and unwanted coal is being embraced in one of the world’s cleanest energy markets: the European Union. The 28-nation EU imported 47.2 million tons of U.S. coal last year, up from 13.6 million tons in 2003. Exports to the U.K. alone are up tenfold in the same period. “Before the financial crisis, Europe was happy to favor the environment, but when the economy started not doing well, they weren’t quite ready to accept the high power price,” so energy consumers returned to coal, says Daniel Rohr, an analyst for Morningstar Inc. --John W Miller, The Wall Street Journal, 6 May 2014
