Early enthusiasm faded in Poland after studies pegged drilling costs at three times higher than in the US. In 2011, Britain's Cuadrilla Resources stopped fracking after some minor quakes were linked to its drilling in northwest England. The practice has been banned elsewhere. US gas deposits within shale fields are among the world's cheapest to exploit, thanks to accommodating geology.
European basins tend to be smaller and occur in shapes that are less cost-efficient to access. That's bad news for ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and other companies that grabbed 109 licenses in Poland in recent years in hopes of a US-style gas gold rush. The relatively slow development of shale abroad should benefit the US. Japanese utilities were paying $20.87 per million British thermal unites (BTUs) for Yemeni gas in January - eight times US gas prices at the time. The bigger the price gap, the greater the profit for shippers of gas from the US.
Read the BusinessWeek article.
