Poland’s shale gas extraction on an industrial scale becomes more and more realistic with 2015 often mentioned as the likely date of launching the production. Polish gas group PGNiG’s CEO Grażyna Piotrowska-Oliwa mentioned 2015 as the planned date of launching the first shale gas mine, provided the firm’s drillings at the Wejherowo license confirm the possibility of gas production, she said during the debate on shale gas held by PAP on March 25. Polish Treasury Minister Mikołaj Budzanowski, in turn, said at a parliamentary commission sitting on April 4 that starting shale gas extraction in 2015 is “absolutely possible” if PGNiG’s works are carried out at a good pace and the gas flows in the region of Pomorze are confirmed. Poland’s second largest player when it comes to shale gas exploration, Orlen Upstream, unit of fuel group PKN Orlen, may launch its extraction of shale gas in 2016, while “millions of cubic meters” are possible for extraction in 2017, its CEO Wiesław Prugar said at PAP’s March debate.

The stake in the game is high, as the launch of shale gas extraction may increase Poland’s GDP in 2013-2022 by over 3%, according to bank DnB Nord and advisory Deloitte, which on January 22 jointly published the report Directions 2013. Positive economic shocks?. “This level is close to the level of advantages enjoyed by the US economy in 2005-2010 thanks to extraction and consumption of shale gas,” the press statement accompanying the report’s publication read. Deloitte and DnB Nord experts make a reservation that in the case of Poland, shale gas extraction is not a matter of “life and death.” Taking into account the estimated size of the shale gas deposits in Poland, “the difference between two possible scenarios: the first being a fiasco (a failure to extract significant amounts of shale gas) and the other (the shale gas project being successful) is not that big. Poland will not become another Norway,” the statement (on January 22) also read.    MORE