Senior executives at BG Group, a leading supplier of liquefied gas to industrial nations, predict it could be a decade or more before widespread development of shale gas reserves occurs outside the US.
The FTSE 100 group became the first company to strike an export deal for shale gas in 2011 from the Gulf Coast of the US with energy company Cheniere in a contract running from 2015 estimated at $8bn.
But, in spite of BG Group’s move to include US shale as part of its mix of LNG supplies to countries in Asia and Europe, executives suggest that the boom of cheap shale gas supplies experienced in North America is unlikely to be replicated elsewhere in the short term.