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"Shale Gas Revolution" will make Poland a Leading Country in Europe! [202]
Ewa Zalewska, director of geology at Poland's Ministry of the Environment, says Polish shale gas is "the gold rush of the 21st century," while other officials have spoken of Poland as the "next Norway" and a future "energy super-power." Poland's reserves are estimated at 1.4 trillion to 3 trillion cubic meters. And the government is working closely with the U.S., signing on to the U.S. State Department's Global Shale Gas Initiative, which aims to "help countries seeking to utilize their unconventional natural gas resources."
Several factors make Poland attractive to foreign energy firms, according to Grzegorz Pytel, energy expert at the Sobieski Institute, a think tank in Warsaw. Under current regulations, producers pay only a 1 percent tax on the volume of hydrocarbons produced, plus a 19-percent corporation tax
- both low rates by international standards. Also, concession contracts are for longer periods of time than in other countries and cover larger geographical areas.
The largely unanswered question, though, is how producers are going to sell the gas once it is extracted, Pytel says. Polish demand is 14 billion cubic meters a year a year, with 10 billion of that coming from Russia's Gazprom. To export excess natural gas produced in Poland, Pytel says Polish gas companies will probably have to strike a deal with Russia, which effectively controls pipelines running through Poland.
Andrzej Kassenberg, president of the Warsaw-based Institute for Sustainable Development, says shale gas could help reduce Poland's need for coal-derived electricity (currently 92 percent of production) and serve as a "transition" energy source on the way to a more renewable future. But he is concerned that shale gas drilling could spoil the landscape and exacerbate water shortages in some areas. "There are going to be thousands of drilling towers and lots of new roads and pipelines, and that could cause social problems," says Kassenberg.
e360.yale.edu/feature/fracking_comes_to_europe_sparking_rising_controversy/2374/
Chevron Looking At Shale Gas Deals In Poland, Romania -Executive
online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110321-708221.html
