Shale gas and “Russian agents”

The government and the opposition are still bringing out the differences in their views onto the international scene by appealing to the third party. The deputy state secretary of the United States Wendy Sherman became such “intermediary” recently. The Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov said that the Communist Party of Ukraine and Svoboda play into Russia’s hands. According to the prime minister, the oppositionists have to explain to Sherman “whose interests they defend” when they speak against the government project of shale gas extraction in Ukraine. “On the one hand, they attack Russia verbally, but on the other, basically, they are Russia’s agents,” Azarov said.

“This is sheer nonsense!” said Svoboda representative Andrii MOKHNYK in his commentary to The Day. “Azarov has been actively participating in betraying the national interests, in the signing of Kharkiv agreements and questions of national identity, the negotiations on the Customs Union and on the lease of Ukraine’s gas transporting system to the Russian Federation and Gazprom. It is not Svoboda who does that. It is Azarov’s government, which is consistently ruining Ukrainian sovereignty.”

Of course, the Svoboda MP’s reaction is rather sharp, but any way you look at it, their position regarding shale gas does play into Russia’s hands. The latter does it best to preserve its monopoly on gas supply to Ukraine and thwart the plans to diversify energy sources. What is the reason for such Svoboda’s stand?

“We support the diversification of energy sources in Ukraine and the increase of domestic gas extraction,” Mokhnyk continues. “This is a part of our program. But there are matters that need to be settled before we go on with this topic. The first one is the environmental issues. It was not discussed at all. Can we exchange hypothetical extraction of shale gas for potential environmental consequences? Obviously, not. Neither [shale gas] companies nor the government give any explanations on possible ecological consequences. In fact, they are not bothered with Ukraine’s energetic independence.” According to Mokhnyk, there is one more problem in this matter, “the question of mutual reassignments”: “So, we make an agreement with Shell, and tomorrow they [the government. – Ed.] reassign it to Gazprom. So what? Where is our energetic independence? The third compound is the participation of local community, which has absolutely no opinion on this matter yet…”

On the other hand, the example of Poland, the US, Canada, etc., show that shale gas can be successfully extracted with the environmental compound taken care of. However, Mokhnyk appeals to the fact that there are countries that have given up shale gas extraction, like France and Bulgaria. It is true, but everyone makes a decision based on their own strength. Besides, a lot of Ukrainian experts tend to think that shale gas extraction is necessary.

What is the government’s drawback? Mykhailo Honchar, director of energy programs at the Nomos Center, thinks that such attitude of the opposition towards shale gas is caused by the government’s insufficient explanatory work. “The matter is that this is an unformed alliance, a situational coincidence of positions that have absolutely different, and often even opposite motivation,” says the expert about the “unity” of views of the Communist Party, Svoboda, and Batkivshchyna on the shale gas problem. “But in some way, the government is to blame for the creation of such ‘wild’ front: it never carried out a single explanatory campaign.” According to Honchar, Azarov only makes it worse by indiscriminately calling everyone the Kremlin’s agent instead of conducting an explanatory dialog.” “The government itself generates feasible opposition to shale gas extraction, which definitely meets the national interests of Ukraine,” Honchar emphasizes.

Indeed, the government should put more effort in explaining their position. Otherwise, more tension and mistrust will emerge within society. And the opposition should review its position so it does not coincide with the intrests of the neighboring country.

“Modernization of the energy sector is timely, but it must be transparent”

Hryhorii NEMYRIA, deputy head of the Batkivshchyna party, chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada Committee for European Integration:

“Firstly, the vocabulary used by Prime Minister Azarov shows that he professes the culture of the Soviet Union, when it was acceptable to talk about Moscow’s agents, Washington’s agents, etc. This is the cultural indicator of the prime minister’s mentality, and it is hardy appropriate to carry out a discussion with him using these terms.

“Regarding the content of the matter and attitude towards shale gas extraction, in particular, that of the Batkivshchyna party: we view this in the context of the strategic priority of Ukrainian economy reform. This enhances Ukraine’s energy efficiency and diversification of energy sources. In this context, the effort to add shale gas to Ukraine’s ‘energy basket’ is one of the logical steps. Fracking technology used for shale gas extraction is rather new. And just as any other new technology, it is a rather serious environmental burden. This is especially true in the hydrographic conditions, a situation when extraction is carried out in the areas of settled residence or with heavy industrial load. That is why, as other countries’ experience shows, a thorough ecological expertise and consultations with specialists and the public (the people, who work there) must be carried out before the start of extraction. This is regulated in various ways in different countries. But this is a necessary stage for the start of such extraction.

“Making the opposition’s (here, I can speak only for the Batkivshchyna party) view look like resistance to certain progressive reforms of the energy sector is unfair. Of course, this matter was discussed in our faction. Our position is the following: the modernization of the energy sector is timely, and any new technology can be used for this, but it should be done transparently, with the involvement of experts and the public, and also with taking international expertise into account. We know that this type of extraction is allowed and carried out in other European countries. And in some (in Germany, if I am not mistaken) it was abandoned. It is rather widespread in the US, and it is developing at a record pace.

“So, before making such statements, Prime Minister Azarov should get a closer look at the specific details coming from the oppositionist parties. And today, we did not see any such intentions on his part. But if they appear, we are ready to explain our position to Azarov.”