Five companies give up shale gas extraction plans in face of opposition and low prices

At the beginning of the decade, five companies began eyeing Spain’s underground resources, promising that the US shale boom could be reproduced on the Iberian peninsula. The conservative government of the Popular Party (PP) lent its weight to fracking – or hydraulic fracturing, the technique used to extract gas from underground shale deposits – in order to reduce the country’s near-complete dependence on hydrocarbon imports. But low gas prices and strong social rejection, including from local and regional authorities, have thwarted those plans. Now, all five firms have given up on fracking altogether.

http://elpais.com/elpais/2017/03/14/inenglish/1489505343_720028.html