The global gas market has witnessed important developments due to promotion of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. This new technology and knowhow which brought about the development of unconventional gas resources like shale gas, has resulted in decreasing the gas prices in North America and lowered the expectations for the future need to import natural liquid gas. The potentials to utilize these resources in other areas and, particularly in Europe, have raised questions about the implications of the shale gas for Energy security of Europe.
Due to the fact that policy-making in energy sector in European Union is based on three factors of security of supply, competitive market and energy sustainability, development of shale gas in Europe would be helpful for reducing energy dependency to Russia and reaching the goals of the 2050 Energy Roadmap of the European Union.
However, reviewing the current developments in this field, the paper concludes that there are serious impediments and reservations which, in the best scenarios, give a conditional and incremental effect on the European energy market.