US to lead shale gas revolution...for now

Using European shale prospects as a point of comparison, he says this underlines why the US is likely to maintain the edge in the short term.

Early explorations in Netherlands and Luxembourg were abandoned because of environmental concerns, fracking extraction is banned in France and opposed in Germany, while Polish explorations were disappointing.

‘Exploiting shale gas reserves in Europe might be a long, technically difficult, politically tricky and legally complex procedure,’ Carpaneda said.

Clearly developments in China will be monitored closely, but he expects regional gas prices to continue diverging as production comes online at different speeds around the world.