Thanks for that post and welcome Copenhagen.

Well if India is serious about this, they will need to get their act together. Right now they have an agreement with the US governement...they will help them with sustainable development and regulations (it's in this link):

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=70873

- Shale Gas Resource assessment in India.

- Technical studies on Shale Gas exploration in India.

- Share best practices on establishing a regulatory framework and safeguard measures for the sustainable development of Shale Gas.

- Promoting sustainable domestic and foreign investment in Shale Gas development

No company is going to go their if what happens to them is like what happened to that Norwegian company you mentioned. If they are serious, agencies will be set up for paper work and things like that, but they can get that done properly.

It all boils down to political stability of nations. A lot of companies sell of assets in unstable areas (ie. Talisman) or won't venture there. Now India is pretty stable, but if it's going to be hell for these companies to do their work and do it efficiently (ie. paperwork, permits etc), then they won't bother.

I have no doubt if India is serious, they'll adapt and do it properly.

This is also interesting:

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110311-712167.html

France stopped it's shale gas drilling until they get back the results of a study (basically like the BAPE commissioned, but this will be in their hands in June).

There are huge players there, Total SA being one of them. Will be interesting to see how they go forward.