New study: Poland may have more shale gas than recently reported

A few weeks ago the Polish Geographical Institute estimated that Poland may have significantly less shale gas than previously thought. However, as we have already pointed out, these are early days. Much more  exploration is needed in order to find out the size of the total shale gas deposits.

The latest report from three coastal license areas indicates that there might be more shale gas than the Polish Geological Institute estimated:


Poland may be able to extract 25-75 billion cubic meters (bcm) of shale gas from just three coastal license areas in Western Pomerania (Slawno, Slupsk, Starogard) operated by Saponis Investments, according to a study carried out by RPS Energy, published by Saponis shareholder LNG Energy and quoted by the daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. 

The total deposits have been estimated at 128 bcm in the most pessimistic scenario and at 376 bcm in the most optimistic one, with recoverable resources at 25 to 75 bcm respectively, the daily wrote. 

If the estimates could be extrapolated to the country level, Poland could be sitting on conditional resources of 4.6 to 13.6 trillion cubic meters of shale gas, or recoverable resources of 1 to 3 trillion cubic meters, much above the recent estimates of the Polish Geological Institute (PIG). 

However, experts are skeptical whether all deposits are as rich as in the three license areas.