Shale oil and ecology in Australia – the search for balance

Abstract

Today Australia is one of the main mineral resources exporters in Asia. Besides, the country possesses huge reserves of shale oil and gas. The estimation of these resources extraction potential without any harm to country’s ecology and society is one of the key aims of this article. The authors research an export and import dynamic of hydrocarbon by Australia with the aim to identify an economic effect from the beginning of shale oil extraction in 2011. Besides, according to expert community’s opinion, there is the emission dynamic of carbon dioxide, which is one of the key factors, determining the environment pollution after the beginning of shale oil extraction in Australia. The major challenge of the article is to estimate the difficulty in real correlation between the ecology and the financial benefits for the economy, as these two factors are loosely connected and the index of additional harm to wildlife and people cannot be directly calculated in financial losses. The major contribution of the article is the development and comparison of the two scenarios of oil extraction and exports with or without frocking bans in Australia. The authors come to the conclusion that positive effects from shale oil and gas extraction for country’s economy do not surpass negative effects for ecology; thus, the authors suggest to use the shale oil reserves only as the strategic resource for economic recovery after crises and at the present moment it should be to realize the shale oil extraction in test mode.