Maria da Graça Carvalho attended the high-level seminar on the implications of shale gas for Europe's competitiveness. MEP Carvalho participated in the debate in which she defended the need of research.
The event was organised by the Bureau of European Policy Advisers of the European Commission BEPA and the German Marshall Fund of the United States GMF. This took place in the European Commission in Brussels.
In a few short years, the development of natural gas from unconventional sources has changed the global energy game. Chief among the new sources is natural gas attained through innovations in energy technology - horizontal and directional drilling, and hydraulic fracturing - which have allowed energy companies to access gas and, increasingly, oil from previously inaccessible geological formations. The implications are profound. The United States has gone from being a country perennially lamenting its addiction to foreign energy to one that is poised to overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's leading producer of hydrocarbons, and its economic rebound is due in no small part to the abundance of shale gas and other new sources of cheap energy.
In Europe, in contrast, natural gas prices are up to three times higher than in the US.
Correspondingly higher electricity prices in some member states are undermining the EU's economic competitiveness. Natural gas is currently unable to compete with coal imported from the US, putting the EU's climate policy ambitions at risk. Europe seems to have extensive resources of shale gas of its own, but it is unclear whether these could deliver an equivalent boost to EU industry. There are also many barriers - economic, regulatory, geological, public perception and the legacy of existing energy infrastructure - to the development of shale gas in Europe.
This seminar pretended to examine the implications of the global revolution in unconventional oil and gas for Europe. It assessed the impacts of shale gas on the EU's economic competitiveness, particularly vis-à-vis the US. It considered the choices that the EU and its member states must make as governments and companies consider whether or not to develop potential resources of shale gas on the continent.
Panelists and participants discussed the impact of these choices on Europe's economic recovery, the fight against climate change and other environmental impacts, and energy security.