PGNiG to Increase Spending on Oil & Gas Exploration

Poland's largest gas company PGNiG is reported to be considering a 50 billion zlotys (€11.5 million) investment on oil and gas exploration over the course of the next decade.

From comments ascribed to chief executive of the company, Slawomir Hinc, the Polish daily newspaper Parkiet reports the company will use the investment to locate alternative and increased supply of oil and gas.

The company has in recent times massively increased its focus on unconventional gas sources, including, most strongly, the search for shale gas. This drive is partly motivated by a need to decrease dependence on main supplier, Russian Gazprom.

Earlier this year, PGNiG said it was anxious to identify total shale potential in the country before a current supply contract with Gazprom expired. 

"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," Grazyna Piotrowska-Oliwa, CEO of PGNiG said in April.

The company has also previously said that it was planning a 27 billion zlotys investment by 2015, which would enable it to pursue increased conventional and unconventional exploration, as well as distribution and storage projects.