India Needs a Long Term Shale Gas Policy

India needs a long term shale gas policy that is holistic and incorporates from the experiences of other countries on issues like gas pricing, environment and land acquisition, ICICI Securities, a Mumbai based brokerage, said in a report on Sunday.

"India needs a long term shale gas policy, which has to be holistic and incorporates lessons learnt from the issues of gas pricing, environment safety, land acquisition, etc. from the experiences of other countries that are further ahead," Indo Asian News Service (IANS) quoted the brokerage as saying.

"Shale gas has potential but is not the silver bullet, which will resolve India's energy crisis tomorrow," the report said.

The report pointed out how individual landowners in US can lease mineral rights to their property, a right which landowners do not have in other nations, IANS said.

"These mineral rights have helped to overcome the issue that has stopped operations elsewhere in the world," ICICI said.

Country's shale gas reserves is estimated at 187.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf), spread over the Cambay, Krishna-Godavari, Cauvery, Ganga and Assam and the Assam-Arakan basins.

"Understanding the challenges around fresh water requirement, environment, natural calamities, investment incentives, land acquisition, among others, will allow policymakers to create a more robust policy for India, which will sustain over the long term," ICICI said, IANS reported