Hungary's unconventional gas reserves

Located in Southeastern Hungary near the Romanian border, the Mako Trough’s reserves are widely thought to be massive.

But the gas is trapped in a rock that isn’t porous and permeable to let molecules flow through it easily. Until now, such unconventional oil-and-gas reserves were viewed as too difficult and expensive to exploit. But soaring energy prices and advances in technology such as “fraking” have made gas locked in coal, sandstone or shale economically and technically viable to extract.

Though Mako is tougher than other gas plays, it has one big advantage. Most of the large gas finds left in the world are far from global markets. By contrast, Mako is in the middle of the existing European gas-pipeline grid. That would make it easy to export the gas to Hungary’s neighbors.

Source: WSJ, 26/06/08