Shale Activity in Europe Increasing

Many companies, from small entrepreneurial firms to international majors are looking for shale gas in Europe:

• Shell is targeting Cambrian Alum shale in southern Sweden in the Colonussänkan and Höllvikengraven areas. The Alum has been considered prospective for shale gas for years and was one of the first areas targeted in Europe.

• Austrian firm OMV is engaged in a three-year project in Austria’s Vienna Basin, where the Upper Jurassic Mikulov marl is more than 4,920 ft (1,500 m) thick and has TOC contents from 0.2% to 10%.

• Several areas in Poland are of high interest because the country has both Silurian and Carboniferous shales.   BNK Petroleum Inc. evaluated shales in nine European basins before zeroing in on the Polish concessions in the Gdansk Basin.  Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company,  was granted a concession to to explore shale gas in the vicinity of the city of Zamosc.  U.K. firm 3Legs Resources is working on Polish shales through its subsidiary, Lane Energy Poland. in the Baltic Basin region. ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil Corp. the third and fourth-biggest U.S. oil companies respectively, obtained exploration licenses this year covering hundreds of thousands of acres in Poland.

• ExxonMobil has drilled  exploration wells in the Lower Saxony Basin in Germany, where it holds 750,000 acres. It has said that it views its German prospects as potentially world-class resources, although the project is still in the evaluation and testing stages. ExxonMobil also active in wells in Hungary, where it holds 400,000 acres.  Exxon has also acquired unconventional natural gas acreage in in the Podlasie and Lublin basins in Poland.

•  Toreador Resources Corp. is pursuing the exploitation of unconventional resources in the Paris Basin, which the company believes has exceedingly similar characteristics to the Bakken Formation in the Williston Basin in North America. The Company has the right to develop 649,000 acres (with an additional 153,000 acres pending regulatory approval).

• Eurenergy Resource Corp. also has announced plans to drill for shale gas in southern England's Weald Basin, where it holds 123,000 acres.  Eurenergy  has also been awarded 1.3 million acres in the East Paris Basin of France, in its Moselle concession and additional concessions in Poland.

Source: E&P