The rapid rise of US shale gas is prompting great interest in whether other parts of the world – particularly Europe and China – could also see a similar boom, but it’s early days for both.

So how promising is it? Below are extracts from an FT Energy Source interview on the subject with Rhodri Thomas, who is Wood Mackenzie’s Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa upstream research manager:

Is shale gas truly proven, an economic source of energy?

There are still many unknowns in terms of shale gas, but what has been proven is that significant volume can be produced at below market prices in the US.

The industry has been extremely successful in driving down costs and the price required to make shale gas viable has fallen in a number of areas in North America. Everyone expected the processes and technology developed in the Barnett shale play (the first one to be developed on any significant scale) to be transferrable, but what caught people out is how quicky it was transferrable.