Novinite: Bulgaria Will Conduct Shale Gas Drilling Sooner or Later – Deputy Minister

Chavdar Georgiev, Deputy Minister of Environment and Water, has suggested that shale gas drilling in Bulgaria is a matter of time.

In January 2012, following mass protests in a number of cities, Bulgaria's Parliament imposed an indefinite moratorium on shale gas exploration and extraction through the controversial technology of hydraulic fracturing.

"Shale gas is often cited as one of the ways to diversify energy sources. Bulgaria has imposed a moratorium on shale gas exploration and production, but taking into account that we do not have sufficient reserves of crude oil and conventional gas, we will sooner or later resort to shale gas extraction," Georgiev declared during a conference titled "Natural gas – infrastructure and services" organized by the Bulgarian Federation of Industrial Energy Consumers.

He noted, however, that there was "nobody to initiate the lifting of the moratorium at this stage." MORE