Poland Finds More Gas in Old FIeld

Poland’s integrated energy company PGNiG has confirmed the reserves at the the Przemysl gas field as 20bn m³. After 60 years of production, the size of the field came as a surprise, but wells show there are still another 20bn m³ to be produced, PGNiG said.

PGNiG estimates that within the next five years gas production in the entire Podkarpacie region, where the Przemysl field is, will grow 28%, to 1.75bn m³/yr, improving national energy security and the regional economy.

Its reserves first estimated at 74bn m³, the field has produced nearly 65bn m³, apparently nearing the decline stage. Based on an approach supported by latest technology, a decision was made to re-evaluate and revitalise the deposit.

PGNiG said it had drilled eight new wells and deepened two as part of the revitalisation programme in the Przemysl field alone. All wells turned out to be positive. Six are already producing natural gas and the others are in development and will be gradually brought on stream, increasing the total gas output from the field.

CEO Piotr Wozniak said: “This year, we plan to drill three more wells and deepen one more. We estimate that in the first year of production, the wells could yield as much as 100mn m³ of natural gas. In the coming years we plan to drill 20 more wells and deepen the existing ones as part of the exploration programme. Given that each new well yields positive results, we may drill still more wells.”

PGNiG has also started the evaluation of western areas of the Przemysl field, Mackowice and Tuliglowy, which have already been drilled. The first step will be to analyse the deeper horizons.

Seismic technology breakthrough

PGNiG subsidiary Geofizyka Torun will be the first company in Europe to employ new seismic data acquisition technology. The company is replacing cabled geophone networks with ultra-lightweight wireless nodal sensors. Their small size and low weight allow exploration without using trucks to shift equipment and batteries around, PGNiG said.

Wireless seismic surveying technology has been developed for years, but only now has miniaturisation of components reached satisfactory levels, PGNiG said. The previously developed solutions were cable-free but still required the use of transmission devices, batteries and geophones, it said. Among other benefits, it is now easier to obtain landowner consent for conducting geophysical surveys.