KU Leuven to look for shale gas in Limburg

Shale gas is a natural gas found within shale formations, and is thought by some to represent a potential solution to the decline in fossil fuels. At present, shale gas is not extracted in Europe, but it is to a growing degree in the United States, by a technique known as fracking (photo), which involves pumping water underground at high pressure to fracture the layers of rock and allow the gas to be extracted.

Opponents of fracking claim the process can cause underground instability and lead to earthquakes. It also pollutes groundwater.

The Leuven study will not involve drilling at all. Instead the researchers, under Professor Rudy Swennen of the geology department, will examine rock samples from the archives of the Belgian Geological Service, drilled out of the ground during the decades when the coal mining industry was active in Limburg. The samples will show, Swennen said, whether shale gas is present, and to what extent. Only when those questions have been answered will the decision arise whether to proceed to extraction of the gas.

Meanwhile, opposition is forming. “I can’t understand why anyone would want to carry out this research. The economic advantages are far outweighed by the incredible ecological disadvantages,” Ludwig Vandenhove, Limburg’s provincial deputy for the environment, told the VRT. Groen called for money to be spent on researching clean and renewable energy sources rather than shale gas extraction. 

Photo credit: MeredithW/Wikimedia Commons