/ world today news/ The vaunted boom for shale gas extraction in Poland is essentially turning into an expensive and unpromising project, writes the “Financial Times”. Realizing this, foreign oil and gas companies are pulling out of production, citing bureaucratic hurdles and a hostile investment climate.
The development of the fields in Poland could take at least 6 years until they become commercially viable, the newspaper said.
Poland hoped that the accelerated development of shale gas deposits would allow it to provide an alternative to Russian supplies, which would help it solve both political and economic problems. Big companies like “ExxonMobil”, “Total”, “Conoco Phillips” entered the country, buying the probes. But today, out of 11 foreign companies that decided to invest in the Polish shale gas market in the last 4 years, 7 have abandoned their plans, even though they had invested a total of 623 million euros.
Now the Polish national companies PKN Orlen, Lotos and PGNiG will have to rely on the support of the government, and the rest of the foreign players will have to wait to see how the situation develops.
The fall in world energy prices also contributed to the flight of investors and the disappointment of shale gas production in Poland, the newspaper notes.
In 2011, it was assumed that Poland’s shale gas reserves would last for 300 years. The government has said that the country will be able to compete with Norway. Today, however, they are not talking about 300, but only 55 years. But none of the 66 working probes has so far confirmed the viability of the production, the Financial Times notes.
London / Great Britain
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