St.Pertersburg Economic Forum: Notorious shale gas was questioned as a proper alternative to natural gas.
The energy specialists assume that the shale gas will be explored further, though still this kind of fuel will be not significant enough even within the US, informs Rosbalt.
At the economic forum in St.Petersburg, the first one to criticize the shale gas triumph was Russian Vice Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who underlined that environmental impact of the shale gas had not been studied so far. Moreover, he exampled early years of nuclear energy that seemed relatively cheap before calculating its disposal costs. He said besides that alternative energy sources do not produce enough energy still demanding huge governmental donations.
According to Rosbalt, Gazprom chairman, Alexey Miller, said that the US-born boom for shale gas does not affect the sales of Russian natural gas. Shale gas is rather a result of a marketing campaign than is a real alternative to natural gas, he said.
Peter Voser, a chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, in particular mentioned: gas demand will be higher than in any other energy sectors. Natural gas is affordable by price and ecology issues; it is cheaper than wind and nuclear energy sources. Besides, we still have gas resources that would be enough for 250 years.
The meeting ended up with a round table discussion and a poll. According to the poll, 70% of voters do not consider shale gas as an alternative to natural gas for at least 20 nearest years.
Noteworthy, that in late January, Gazprom acknowledged that US shale gas destroys competitive advantages of Russian gas in EU countries. Besides, shale gas reserves in the US were found as an obstacle to North-America market that used to be targeted by Shtokman.
