OSLO: French energy major Total plans to drill Denmark's first test wells for shale gas in December or January, with drilling expected to last for three months, it said on Friday.
The Frederikshavn municipality in northern Denmark gave Total approval last week, saying it expected drilling to start by the end of the summer.
Total said on Friday the extent of activities in 2015 would depend on the results of the test, and on obtaining permits that would take account of an environmental impact assessment study.
"If the results are positive, a test using hydraulic fracturing (fracking) will be carried out in 2015," a spokeswoman for the firm said in an email to Reuters.
Fracking, which blasts chemicals, sand and water deep into the earth to break up shale formations and allow gas to escape, has triggered widespread protests from environmental groups.
Danish environmentalists say they fear the process could contaminate groundwater.
But depleting conventional gas resources are pushing the country to look for alternatives. The existing permission allows Total to only drill conventional wells to take the samples, which can show the presence of hydrocarbons in the shale formations about 4,000 metres (13,120 feet) below the surface.
Total holds 80 percent and Denmark's state-owned North Sea Fund the rest in the license. Last year, Denmark consumed more energy than it produced for the first time since 1997.
Though the country remains a net oil and gas exporter, output for the two fell by 13 percent and 18 percent respectively over 2013, Danish energy agency data show.
Denmark is a sole natural gas supplier to Sweden, and also exports gas to Germany and the Netherlands. European countries remain split over fracking.
Britain and Poland are pushing hard for the development of shale gas, seen as one way to lessen European dependence on Russian natural gas, as well as to lower energy costs as it has in the United States.
Meanwhile, France has a ban on the use of hydraulic fracking in place.
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