AFP: Romania sees shale gas as boon despite controversy

Romania is looking to exploit shale gas reserves in a drive for energy self-sufficiency, but critics organising demonstrations on Thursday warn of big risks for the environment.

The US oil group Chevron is one of the firms interested in the opportunity but targeted by protesters who point to controversy in other countries where the so-called "fracking" process of cracking rock at the risk of polluting water has been held up.

"Shale gas definitely represents the future and Romania must determine if such deposits do exist on its territory," Alexandru Patruti, the head of the national agency for mineral resources (NAMR), told AFP.

NAMR is in the early stages of a survey to assess reserves but a study in the United States has estimated joint reserves in Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary at about 538 billion cubic metres.

This puts the reserves among the biggest in eastern Europe and big enough to give Romanian officials ambitions of freeing the country from costly imports from Russian giant Gazprom.  MORE