Caspian Report - Issue: 07 - Spring 2014

Frank Umbach
74
During the last three years, exploration
licenses for Spain’s conventional and
unconventional hydrocarbon resources
have almost doubled.
leum and Sonatrach from Algeria)
control around 50% of the European
gas supply. France’s Académie
des Sciences has recommended that
further research into shale gas extraction
be undertaken, and has also
called for an “independent and multidisciplinary
scientific authority” to
assess the methods and operating
practice.
Spain
The Spanish Energy Ministry and
the Autonomous Communities have
granted numerous exploration permits
in various autonomous regions
(mainly in the northern part of the
country) after recent discoveries of
shale gas deposits. During the last
three years, exploration licenses for
Spain’s conventional and unconventional
hydrocarbon resources have
almost doubled in the Asturias/
Cantabria/Basque Country onshore
and offshore areas, as well as in the
offshore regions of Fuertenventura,
Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. In
the latter region, shale gas deposits
are reportedly much larger than
in peninsular Spain. In the Basque
Country area, a “world-class-shalegas
play” has been identified. With
the strong support of regional governments
and North American exploration
companies, the Spanish
unconventional gas industry hopes
to expand exploration activities and
go into the production of its shale
gas reserves in the mid-term.
In August 2013, the Spanish government
prepared a project for the
Law of Environmental Evaluation,
which would require all projects using
fracking technology to submit an
“evaluation of impact” report. The
government has advanced the use of
fracking and given legal protection
to the controversial technology. Due
to the severity of Spain’s economic
crisis, the concept of using cheap
domestic energy resources has had
greater resonance among the Spanish
population than in most other
European countries.
The Superior College of Mining Engineering
has estimated that Spain’s
shale gas resources can provide 39
years of domestic gas consumption.
Spanish fracking companies
have formed the lobby group “Shale
Gas Espana” to promote shale gas
projects and to dispel myths surrounding
suspected environmental
risks of the fracking technology.
Despite its dependence on imports
of hydrocarbons up to 99% - leading
to an energy deficit worth 45 billion
Euros (almost 4% of the national
GDP) - environmental groups and
dozens of Town Halls and provincial
governments as well as the Spanish
Federation of Municipalities and
Provinces (FEMP) have presented
103 motions against fracking.
At the end of last October, parliament
passed an amendment to the
country’s hydrocarbon law, which
will speed up the development
of unconventional gas projects in
Spain. The law prevents regional
governments from banning hydraulic
fracturing projects. Com-