Progress at Lebork - Hope for Polish Shales?

A small but nevertheless hopeful sign for those holding out hope for Poland's "Shale Gas El Dorado".

Polish daily Rzeczpospolita is reporting that the Łebien LE-2H well in Northern Poland is flowing
 approximately 8,000 cubic meters of shale gas per day. The newspaper comments that this amount of gas does not necessarily lead to commercial production,

Piotr Wozniak, Deputy Minister of Environment and National Chief Geologist is reported to have commented on the "very good news" following a site meeting.

Drilled in June 2011 to a total measured depth of 4,080 metres, the Łebień LE-2H well includes a horizontal section of approximately 1,000 metres, which was successfully placed within a five metre target zone within the organic-rich lower Palaeozoic shales.  The well encountered high gas saturations throughout the horizontal section.  Sustained flaring was indicated in November 2012.

In March 2012, 3Legs Resources relinquished a 70 per cent stake in its Polish Baltic Basin concessions as ConocoPhillips exercised its call option over the assets.  

The move saw operatorship of the Damnica, Karwia and the Lebork concessions pass to ConocoPhillips, with 3Legs retaining a 30 per cent interest in the concessions. The three Baltic Basin concessions have seen four shale wells drilled, fracked and two tested with funding from ConocoPhillips.

In a July interview, Malcolm Rice-Jones, commercial director of ConocoPhillips, discussed the company's extensive experience in oil and gas production from shale rock.

"As a company, we are confident that we will be able to customize existing solutions to those on which the we deal in Poland," said Rice-Jones, while declining to provide an estimated date of commercial shale gas production.

"We need another test drilling to confirm that the gas can be produced on an economically viable scale."