Poland's Shales May Hold Greater Riches

Poland's shale gas may include higher value liquid hydrocarbons.

The disclosure was made at a conference on the future of Poland’s unconventional gas resources and their role in the global energy market, held today at James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

Annell R. Bay, Senior Vice President Exploration for Marathon Oil, said that the company expected to find natural gas liquids as part its shale gas exploration.

The conference featured presentations and roundtable discussions that included officials from the Polish and American governments, as well as representative of Polish shale gas concession holders, PGNiG SA, PKN Orlen and Group Lotos.

Marathon holds 11 shale gas concessions in Poland totaling about 2.3 million acres.

In April,  Houston based company has entered into an agreement Nexen Inc., for the Canadian based company acquire a 40 percent working interest in ten concessions.  Japanese trading giant Mitsui also took a nine percent stake in June of this year..

The ten concessions, encompassing 2.1 million acres (850,000 hectares), are located in a band spanning from north Poland to its eastern border.

Earlier, Marathon had said it plans to conduct seismic surveys on its Polish lands and possibly drill up to two wells this year. As many as eight are planned for 2012.