Gazprom continues monitoring shale gas sector advancement

The Management Committee ordered that appropriate materials are prepared for consideration of the Board of Directors.
The meeting also reviewed the assurance and improvement of anti-terrorism security measures at crucial facilities of Gazprom Group’s infrastructure.
Natural gas production from unconventional sources such as shale formations has been increasingly attracting public attention worldwide but is no news for the gas industry. A surge of interest is foremost explained by the increased shale gas production in the USA and that triggered the study on similar opportunities in other regions of the world, namely, in Europe and Asia.
However, shale gas production projects feature a number of technological and commercial peculiarities. These are a large scope of production drilling, a sharp drop in production volumes in the first years, a constant need to move to new development areas and substantial environmental risks. Moreover, the prime cost of shale gas production is rather high. For instance, it is several times higher than the prime cost of conventional gas production in Russia. These factors predetermine the role of shale gas as a local resource offsetting the lack or absence of conventional gas in regional markets.
At the same time, Gazprom possesses its own technologies similar to those applied for shale gas production. They are currently used for coalbed methane production in Kuzbass.