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Since September 2012, the Tunisian government has shown its willingness to explore and exploit shale gas. Billions of cubic meters of oil and shale gas should be found in Tunisian subsoil. The official speech presented shale gas as an El Dorado that would boost the economy, increase growth, significantly reduce unemployment and reduce the country’s energy dependence. But what the officials are silent on, or what they want to minimize, is the environmental damage and the health risk caused by the shale gas extraction technique, which have been highlighted by many independent American scientific studies. This article presents an overview of the shale gas issue in Tunisia and examines it in its political, environmental and socio-economic dimensions.