The Great Illusion

A feature by Filippo Bardazzi and Laura Chiaroni / SooS Chronicles

New opportunities in unconventional gas exploitation let Europe dream of lightening the burden of its dramatic dependence on Russian supplies.

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the controversial method used to drill this type of gas. It is an invasive process that employs high-pressure water jets mixed with specific chemicals to break the shale rocks and to extract the gas contained in them. According to some researches, fracking has serious consequences on the environment and it requires a strict regulation, which is still absent from the vague energy policy of the European Union.

On the 26th of March 2014, during the EU-US summit in Brussels, the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, stressed the need for Europe to diversify its sources of energy in order to make it less vulnerable to Russian blackmail, and said Europe should open up to fracking to develop its own gas supply. Among the European countries interested in shale gas explorations, only three have currently granted permits for drilling to energy companies: Poland, United Kingdom and Romania.

Local farmers and activists have joined together in a big anti-fracking movement against this decision, while the first tests confirm that european unconventional gas deposits are poorer than expected and their extraction would have limited benefits and no significant impact on consumption.