Oil executives talk up shale gas at Davos

New reserves of natural gas found in shale rock are a “big deal” and a “game changer.”

That’s the message Thursday from oil company executives at the World Economic Forum in addressing global concerns about rising dependency on oil and the need to develop cleaner energy to slow climate change.

New extraction methods have opened up large reserves of gas embedded in shale rock in North America. The potential for tapping shale gas reserves elsewhere is not yet clear, but Europe is set to benefit from greater supplies as liquefied natural gas originally intended for the United States is redirected to European markets instead.

The surge in gas supplies, combined with new technology, could also reduce the need for oil to fuel the world’s automobiles.

The new gas supplies, however, have negative implications for Russia, whose state-controlled company Gazprom provides Europe with about 20 percent of its gas and depends on European sales for the bulk of its profits.

AP