Petrolinvest Looks on the Bright Side of PGI/USGS report

"We can still call Poland - the shale gas El Dorado," commented Bertrand Le Guern, head of shale gas explorer Petrolinvest on last week`s publication of estimates of shale gas reserves in Poland.

The new estimates have dramatically reduced recoverable shale gas reserves in the country, from over 5 tcm in the last year`s report published by the E.I.A., to 346 bcm to 768 bcm, with even the most optimistic scenario pointing to 1.9 tcm.

Interviewed by PiN Radio, Le Guern joined the chorus of Polish energy professionals who have pointed out that the estimates are based on conservative assumptions and on cores extracted in the previous century.

He remains very optimistic. "This is another report which is very clearly confirming a large potential."

The Frenchman who has been working as a top-manager in Poland for many years considers that paradoxically, less may mean more for the industry.

In Le Guern`s opinion, the former, overly optimistic estimates suggested that future prices of gas could go down. "Declining prices would constitute the greatest risk to companies," - argued the president of Petrolinvest.

"Personally I`m very pleased, very positive,"  Le Guern said, cautioning: "Rome wasn`t build in one night or... one year.".