PGNiG Anxious for Shale Figures Before Gazprom Contract Ends

Poland's main gas company PGNiG has said today that it is anxious for shale potential in the country to be identified before a contract with Gazprom runs out.

Reported by Polish daily newspaper Super Express today, chief executive of PGNiG Grazyna Piotrowska-Oliwa said that the country would have to know how much shale it could produce before agreeing any new import contracts.

"It's very important that by 2019, that is three years before the Gazprom contract expires, we know how much shale we are able to produce domestically from conventional sources and, first and foremost, shale gas," she is reported as saying.  

"Then we will have to make a decision on what next with imported gas."

Shale activity in Poland has been ramped up by the Polish government and Polish companies in recent years, as the country aims to break its reliance on imports and other energy sources, such as coal.

In January this year, PGNiG agreed to cooperate with other Polish companies in the search for shale, signing a letter of intent with PGE, Tauron Polska Energia and KGHM.

Though an agreement on the parameters of the cooperation was expected to be completed by the end of this month, PGNiG said today that this had been pushed back to the end of June as power company Enea also comes on board.