Orlen Upstream CEO Cooling Down Polish Shale Gas Fever

Wieslaw Prugar, CEO of Orlen Upstream, and president of the Polish Exploration and Production Organization, says that the recoverable reserves of shale gas in Poland are probably several times fewer than 5.3 tcm, as estimated by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Similarly, less optimistic predictions were given by Pawel Poprawa of the Polish Geological Institute. “The [American] report overestimates acreage and production volume per unit,” Poprawa recently told Natural Gas Europe.

Wieslaw Prugar, speaking to a reporter from PiN Radio, also commented on the Polish government's shale gas development plans. According to Minister of Treasury Mikolaj Budzanowski, a production scale of at least 0.2 - 0.3 bcm should be reached no later than in 2015.

"On a limited area, where exploration is very advanced, production and first sales of gas are possible in 2014," said Wieslaw Prugar to PiN Radio. In his opinion, production of 1 to 3 bcm/year would be possible in 2018-2020.

Prugar added that Orlen Upstream, which owns six exploratory concessions in Poland, is looking for financial and oil & gas companies eager to form a partnership. At the same time, Orlen is not going to apply independently for further concessions.

Last year Orlen was said to negotiate a deal with Canadian E&P Encana. Today the Minister of Treasury suggested that Orlen should rather create a domestic shale gas exploration partnership.

Interviewed by the public radio station "Program 3", Miklolaj Budzanowski said that the idea of combining the forces of Polish state companies in shale gas exploration would be broadened. 

"Orlen will probably start talks with one of the state owned utilities over cooperation in shale gas exploration," he said.

This month, another state controlled company, gas monopoly PGNiG SA, signed letters of intent with state-controlled copper miner KGHM Polska Miedz SA, and with power firms PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna SA and Tauron Polska Energia SA, to jointly explore shale gas in Poland.