Poland wants to frack, but Mother Nature isn’t complying. Warsaw is one of the few in Europe to see the value of shale, but technical difficulties and a byzantine regulatory environment have scuppered its ambitions thus far.

The Italian energy firm Eni is now the fourth of five early movers on Poland’s shale reserves to call it quits, and it’s hard to call this anything but a disaster for Polish shale ambitions. That’s a shame, because for a little while there it looked like Poland might have been the first country in Europe to follow in America’s footsteps.