| dc.description.abstract | The emergence of the shale gas on the global fuel market resulted in
considerable changes in the perception of energy capacity of many countries.
This might be considered a threat to the states being only exporters of the
natural gas from conventional sources. The economic unity of such powers
as Russia or Qatar may lead to a serious crisis in energetic sectors of such
countries in the event of eventual success of mass exploitation of the shale
gas. So far, however, the only country that could be considered successful in
the field of exploitation of shall gas is still the US. The scale of the natural
deposits, their wealth and - above all – their price speak for the continuation
of the production process. It seems that EU countries cannot count on similar
success. There are couple of reasons for that. Among them, the fist one are
problems of the technical nature. Natural, unconventional gas deposits in
Europe are located much deeper than similar deposits in United States. Besides
that, there is still a problem with the density of population in the areas that
could potentially be a source of shale gas. This, in turn, is linked heavily to
the issue of environment protection. Despite the assurance of safety coming
from the circles of experts or corporations interested in this process, voices
saying about negative impact of exploiting shale gas on the environment can
be heard more and more loudly. Many European countries are also bonded
by contracts for the supply of natural gas from Norway, Qatar or the Russian
Federation. Since the shares in the joint investment are the domain of the
largest companies representing a broad spectrum of European energy sector,
they form kind of lobby on further works on conventional sources. More
often than not – own, particular interests decide in this matter. Despite the
initial optimistic information about the possibility of exploitation of Polish
natural shale gas deposits it’s hard to stay optimistic judging the chances
for the future. The natural deposits of shale gas in Poland obviously and
undoubtedly exist and that is a fact, but they are still much smaller than it
was previously assumed. It is also unclear whether the production of gas from
conventional deposits will be profitable enough. Exploratory work should
give answers to these questions within a decade. It seems, however, that
Poland should equally invest in both unconventional gas, as well as liquefied
gas terminal in Świnoujście and the support for “energetic solidarity” within
the European Union. | en |
