Romania, US to Co-operate on Impacts of Shale Gas
Romania's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business Milieu and the US Embassy in Bucharest will set up an expert Romanian-U.S. working group that will look into the impacts of shale gas exploration.
Earlier this week, Romanian Economy Minister Daniel Chitoiu met with US Ambassador in Bucharest Mark H. Gitenstein and US Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy Richard Morningstar to brief them on the priorities of the Romanian Government in relation to the development of the energy sector.
Discussing a proposed moratorium on the exploitation of shale gas, Minister Chitoiu said that the moratorium would be lifted once specialist studies on the effects on the environment of the shale gas exploitation were made known to the public at large and confirmed the safety of exploitation efforts. It was agreed that greater transparency and better information of the Romanian public about the technologies, procedures and advantages of exploring for and exploiting such natural resources are needed.
Romania’s Minister of the Environment, Rovana Plumb, has said shale gas exploration would be suspended in Romania throughout the year and that no environmental approval will be issued to this end unless supported by scientific documentation.
In a an earlier interview with TVR, Ambassador Gitenstein discussed the potential impact of a moratorium on activities by Chevron Corp.
“Chevron has an exploration permit. The Romanian government and the Romanians will have to decide whether they want to pay for natural gas a price five times higher than the Americans pay. It’s possible there may not be shale gas deposits in Romania, in which case the price of natural gas will remain unchanged. But if there is a way of extracting shale gas without affecting the environment I believe Romanians would want to do that,” Gitenstein stated.
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