The Financial Times reported that Francois Hollande, the president of France, ruled out the possibility of the slate gas production as long as he holds power. The president made this statement while talking to Arnaud Montebourg, the Minister of Industrial Renewal, who inquired about the availability of “an environmentally green” means of extracting such a resource out of subsoil assets.
Hollande added that the national economy was on the way to its recovery and referred to the data on the rising manufacturing output and private consumption in June. By doing so, he highlighted that the government spending for 2014 is supposed to be curtailed in order to lower the deficit figures and slow down the state debt growth.
In France, the ban on the shale production was imposed just 2 years ago when Nicolas Sarkozy was still in power. The decision was brought about by the fact that the fracking technology (or hydraulic fracturing) needed for extracting shale gas can harm the environment.
France turned out to be the first country to introduce the statutory prohibition against developing the resource followed by Bulgaria and several other countries. At the same time, politicians have raised the issue once and again concerning the option that the slate gas production would be worthy of launching since it could speed up the economic growth and bring down the fuel prices.
Nowadays France is a net importer of gas purchasing the fuel from Norway, the Netherlands, Algeria, and Russia.
The so-called shale gas revolution took place in the U.S.A. in late 2000, when the country managed to gain strong results of hydrocarbon extraction out of earlier inaccessible fields. Owing to the upsurge of the field production, the U.S. was able to bring the gas balance close to nought. A few countries, including China, have been actively involved in shale field exploration since then.
