GDF voices a need for improvements before development and hydraulic fracturing move forward in Europe. I'm not sure if the CEO is saying fracking actually needs to improve or if the understanding of the technology and application needs to improve.

The technology used to extract oil and gas from shale rocks, a process that has revolutionized the U.S. energy industry, should be improved to protect the environment, the head of Europe’s largest gas company said.

“There are concerns about the environmental impact,” Gerard Mestrallet, chief executive officer of GDF Suez (GSZ) SA, said in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York. “Probably it can be improved and probably it has to be improved.”

Hydraulic fracturing, a technique that uses water, sand and chemicals to break apart rocks and release trapped fuel, has made the U.S. the world’s largest natural gas producer. That success hasn’t quelled concern that fracking, as the process is known, risks polluting drinking water.

Read the full news release at bloomberg.com