Bloomberg: GDF Suez Considering Shale Exploration in Europe Amid French Ban

GDF Suez SA, owner of Europe’s biggest natural gas network, is considering exploring for shale oil and gas in Germany, Poland, the U.K. and in Latin America.

“We are already doing a little in Germany,” Chief Executive Officer Gerard Mestrallet told a business conference outside Paris yesterday. He also added Brazil and Chile to the list.

“For the moment, we are evaluating and analyzing,” he said later in an interview. “We will then decide.”

GDF Suez’s move into shale exploration would come amid a continued ban in its home country of France on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a drilling technology used to extract oil and gas. Mestrallet, along with Total SA (FP) Chief Executive Officer Christophe de Margerie, has been among the most vocal corporate executives for changes in the French policy. GDF Suez is based in Courbevoie, France.  MORE