Reuters: European shale gas still a bargaining chip: Gerard Wynn

Europe's shale gas was always chiefly a bargaining chip for price negotiations with Russian and other imports, and remains so after Poland found it was no longer an energy behemoth - with reserves about a tenth of previous estimates.

Hopes of a shale gas revolution in the European Union were over-blown. While shale gas became a game-changer to the U.S., flooding the domestic market, in Europe, it will supply a useful diversification.

The bloc hosts 31 test drills so far, the EU's executive commission confirmed on Wednesday, compared with more than 25,000 operating wells in the United States. 

It takes time to build out the infrastructure to drill and operate wells and transport the gas, meaning a ramping up was always a decade-long project.  MORE