Polish shale industry collapsing as number of licenses nearly halves

Prospects for fracking boom in Poland look remote as companies including state-owned gas firm ditch shale gas concessions in face of challenging geology

Poland's shale gas industry appears to be collapsing, just four years after the US government predicted that its reserves were abundant enough to fuel the country for the next three centuries.

Concessions for exploratory shale drilling have nearly halved in the last year from 58 to just 32, according to a new Polish government manifest published to little fanfare on the environment ministry's website this week.