Shell calls for Europe to act on gas

PARIS, April 23 (UPI) -- Natural gas has a central role to play in the energy and environmental future for the European community, Shell officials said in France.

European geopolitics are influenced by regional natural gas supplies. The region, meanwhile, has adopted measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions substantially by 2020.

Malcolm Brinded, executive director for upstream business at Royal Dutch Shell, told an audience at an international oil summit in Paris summit that Europe, however, "faces a natural gas puzzle."

Domestic natural gas supplies, he said, are in marked decline, though demand for the resource is increasing. Meanwhile, natural gas, the cleanest-burning fossil fuel, plays a central role in the European effort to reduce its impact on the environment.

But European gas supplies are more promising than most believe, Brinded said. Production from gas shale and developments in liquefied natural gas, he stressed, would make an important contribution to European energy security.

"But to achieve long-term gas supply security, Europe needs to send clear, positive signals about the place of natural gas in its future energy mix," he said.