Poland: Successful Shale Gas Test Drilling for PGNiG

Another flame of shale gas over Pomorze.

State controlled gas company PGNiG has announced a successful test drilling for shale gas in Opalino.

The source of gas is Cambrian shale formations at the depth of 3000mts. As the company informs,  gas flow was acquired  during initial testing with the use of a formation tester.  The drilling continues and the company expects further gas bearing zones of Silurian and Ordovician shales.

Opalino is situated within the Wejherowo licence, in Pomorze region, just several kilometers west of the company's first successful well. PGNiG struck the company hit gas at Lubocino in September 2011 and after the recent completion of its first horizontal well Lubocino 2H, PGNiG is currently preparing for a fracturing operation there.

According to the PGNiG CEO Grażyna Piotrowska-Oliwa the discovery in Opalino confirms that potential of the Wejherowo licence stands out of all 15 licence areas, held by the company.  “We want to develop this as quickly as possible,” stated Piotrowska-Oliwa.

Last July PGNiG signed an agreement with four other state controlled companies  on financial support for shale gas development on the Wejherowo license area. However this week copper giant KGHM and utilities Tauron, PGE and Enea announced they needed more time to hammer out details, postponing to February a deadline to work out the details of agreement.

Under its shale gas exploration program PGNiG has performed also two vertical drills in Markowola, Mazowsze and Lubycza Krolewska, in the Lubelskie region.

Up to date, 31 boreholes have been completed in Poland. In the last several weeks two other flares were reported from Pomorze: in Lebien by 3Legs Resources and Gapowo by BNK.