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The European Commission has published a report by British consultancy AEA Technology which examines the potential impact of shale gas extraction on EU climate goals. It shows that extracting shale gas generally imposes a larger environmental footprint than conventional gas development, which is why AEA recommends updating some of the current EU regulations regarding shale gas exploration and production.

New requirements are expected to raise shale gas production costs, although it still depends on how stringent they would be. The European Commission is working on plans to present specific solutions.

Poland’s Treasury Minister Mikołaj Budzanowski criticized the report for “misleading the public” and said that the government would soon take action in response to the publication, Rzeczpospolita reported.

Poland is thought to have the EU’s largest shale gas reserves, but estimates of total accessible deposits vary widely and some initial exploration has not yielded the expected results.

A number of experts are skeptical about the findings of the report due to the earlier close cooperation between AEA Technology and Russia’s Gazprom group, the world’s largest extractor of natural gas, Rzeczpospolita wrote. Gazprom exports significant quantities of natural gas to Poland and would lose out were large quantities of commercially exploitable shale gas to be found in Poland.

Poland A.M.