Polish

Following the huge gas and oil rush in the US, the world’s gas and oil companies have been eyeing reserves in other countries including Poland which is believed to be sitting on one of the largest reserves in the European Union. The Poles, seeking to diversify their sources of energy and meet EU emissions standards (which are driving up electricity costs), met the news with tremendous fanfare. Following initial assessments by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Polish Geological Institute, major oil companies such as Talisman Energy, ExxonMobil, ENI, ConocoPhillips, and Halliburton soon made announcements to begin drilling operations in Poland. However, one of the major challenges of shale gas development is that it often requires voluminous speculative wells before the gas is successfully extracted. In the US this was not such a problem because there are several adventuresome energy firms willing to take on the risk, but in Poland (and Europe in general) such firms are rare, and in former communist countries these firms are rarer still yet. This lack of critical infrastructure coupled with bureaucratic red tape in the permitting process have led to slow growth in exploration activities in Poland. This may partially explain the recent pull out of three major oil companies. Will Poland be able to successfully develop these resources? If so, how long might it take? This manuscript explores the current state of play in Poland’s unconventional gas and oil development.

Geomatics, Landmanagement and Landscape, 2014

The article presents an outline history, current state and development prospects of oil industry of the Carpathian area in Poland as compared to the Carpathian petroleum province. Polish part of The Carpathian Flysch Belt is considered to be a cradle of oil industry, the beginnings of which are related to mass distillation of oil and its industrial extraction. After dynamic development at the turn of 19 th and 20 th centuries there was a period of regression, which lasts till the present day. It was related to the exhaustion of old deposits and lack of discovery of the new ones. The prospects of further development of the industry depend on identifying deeper beds of the Carpathian orogen and of eastern and southern part of the Carpathian Foredeep, and on the development of exploration and extraction methods of the so-called unconventional deposits of hydrocarbons.

The Weglowka field is one of the biggest oil fields in the Outer Polish Carpathians, situated north of Krosno between Frysztak and Brzozow in the Subsilesian tectonic unit. The field was discovered in 1888 and has produced 998,220 t of oil and 214.52 million m 3 (7.575 bcf) of gas since exploitation began. More than 350 wells have been drilled in the Weglowka oil field; it was completed in the reservoir intervals that range in depth from 100 to 1200 m (330 to 3900 ft). The Weglowka oil field is now in the final phase of exploitation. Oil is accumulated in several Lower Cretaceous sandstone bodies. The trap is an anticline that is cut by two second-order longitudinal, small thrust faults that subdivide the field between two thrust sheets. Stratigraphic traps probably exist in the Lgota sandstone (the main reservoir), associated with lowstand systems tract sandstones deposited in basin-floor fans. The main seals in the field are the Verovice shales, Lgota Shales, and the younger Godul...

EAGE Conference on Geology and Petroleum Geology of the Mediterranean and Circum-Mediterranean Basins, 2000

2008

Approximately 110x10 6 m 3 of oil (100x10 6 tons) had been recovered from 38 fields in the Croatian part of the Pannonian basin during more than 60 years of exploitation (1941-2003). Based on their cumulative production, number of reservoirs, average porosity and permeability, obtained recovery and depositional characteristics of reservoir rocks, the Croatian hydrocarbon fields may be divided into three groups (oil), or four groups (gas) (Table 1, 2). In the period 1941-1990 the production started in 38 fields, 13 of which before 1959. The peak was reached in 1980-1989 period, when exploitation started in 12 new fields. However, estimations of economic exploitation are optimistic. The longest period is assumed for the 1 st group of fields-approx. 55 years, while for 2 nd and 3 rd group 46 and 36 years of exploitation are expected, respectively. Moreover, in the 1 st group the average number of reservoirs is 16 and lithological composition is very favourable, since reservoirs are represented by sandstones of Pannonian and Pontian age. The exception is the Beničanci field with a reservoir in Lower and Middle Miocene breccias. The prognosed exploitation period of gas fields (without fields in the Adriatic offshore) is between 5 and 23 years. Relatively homogeneous sandstone lithology, including good regional seals like marls, enables increasing of recovery using fluid injection. Also, injection of CO 2 is planed in favourable reservoirs (immiscible phases, pressure supported) and two pilot projects are either finished (Šandrovac field in 2001) or planned in near future (Ivanić field in 2008). The water-flooding will probably be dominant secondary method for increasing recovery in the future, especially due to the fact that for the CO 2 injection gas transport and careful analysis of fluids interactions in sub-surfaces are necessary. Both approaches can be very easily and successfully applied today due to very good regional tectonic, stratigraphic, depositional and geochemical investigations of the Sava and Drava depressions. It is assumed that over 2-4 times more oil was generated than oil discovered up to now. It means that, at least based on presented statistics, probably some larger fields can be discovered especially in the Drava and Sava depressions.

Journal of Petroleum Geology, 1998

This paper has been inspired by the newest data on successful petroleum-geological exploration and the discovery of commercial reservoir in southwestern part of the offshore Adriatic Basin in the vicinity of towns Bari and Brindisi. On several occasions in presentations in Nafta journal, the authors have pointed out that oil discovery could be expected in the Croatian part of Adriatic offshore if the seismic data reinterpretation and exploration drilling results were addressed properly. Recent analyses of such data showed that previous studies did not include all paleo-geographic elements, which affected the development of paleo-structures and creation of potential source and reservoir rocks and cap rocks. Special attention shall be put on the above mentioned elements and at the end, the recommendations for further petroleum-geological exploration shall be given.

Przegląd Geologiczny, 2007

The Polish Permian Basin (PPB) is a part of the Southern Permian Basin in the Western and the Central Europe. Results of burial and thermal analyses as well as a configuration of the Moho surface of the Polish Basin suggest the asymmetrical basin model. History of the Polish Basin reveals that the Late Permian and the Early Triassic periods represent the main rifting phase and its later development resulted from thermal relaxation. During the Late Triassic and the Jurassic time some cooling of rift heat field took place, but the turning point in thermal evolution of the Polish Basin was at the Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary when the southwestern part of the Polish Basin was uplifted and intensively eroded. The knowledge on the Permian Basin in Poland is chiefly connected with petroleum exploration. The gas fields are located mainly in the Rotliegend reservoirs. The Zechstein deposits, overlying the Rotliegend, are also in the area of economic interest: hydrocarbons occurring in carbonate deposits of the Werra (Zechstein Limestone-Ca1) and Stassfurt (Main Dolomite-Ca2) cyclothems. Several tens gas fields have been hitherto discovered within the Rotliegend sandstones and the Zechstein limestones. Reservoirs are the clastic, terrestrial deposits of the Lower Permian and calcareous, biogenic carbonates of the Zechstein. Evaporates, mainly salts of the Werra cyclothem, are the regional sealing for the mentioned reservoirs. Natural gas accumulated in the Rotliegend sandstones and the Zechstein limestones is of the same origin: it was generated from organic matter occurred in the Carboniferous rocks and it migrated to higher places where it became concentrated within favourable structural or lithofacies conditions. High nitrogen content in the natural gas from the Polish Permian Basin is explained that nitrogen is generated from an organic matter within a sedimentary basin at higher temperatures than methane. Location of high helium concentration corresponds to the area of highest heat flow during the Late Permian, Triassic and Jurassic times, evidencing the Late Permian-Early Mesozoic rifting process. Numerous oil gas fields discovered in the Main Dolomite (Ca2) unit constitute it as one of the most important exploration target in the Polish Basin. It composes the closed hydrodynamic system sealed from the top and the bottom by evaporates. Both the source rocks and reservoirs are characteristic for this unit. Influence of the burial and thermal history of the Polish Basin on a petroleum play generation within the Main Dolomite unit is clearly visible. The previous and the present petroleum discoveries in the Polish Permian Basin, comparing to the other petroleum provinces in Poland, indicate it as a main exploration target.

This report, provides an analysis of infrastructure, economic, geological, environmental and law-related aspects of development of the unconventional gas sector both in Poland and in the EU. It also gives recommendations regarding this new challenge for the EU’s energy policy.

2010

In 2008 the oil production (excluding Denmark) stood at about 5 Mt with a 30 % share of offshore production. The natural gas production was at about 20 billion m³ with Germany and Poland as producers. There was only a small production from offshore. Hydrocarbon potential In comparison with other regions, e.g. the North Sea, Caspian Sea and Black Sea regions the hydrocarbon potential of the Baltic region is very small. The common reserves (without Denmark) exceed 73 Mt of oil and 264 billion m³ of natural gas. The resource estimated are 135 Mt and 295 billion m³, respectively. The share on global reserves and resources is less than 0.3 %. The region is prospective for non-conventional oil and gas. Main sources for non-conventional oil in the Baltic Sea region are oil shale in Estonia and in the Leningrad district of the Russian Federation. Sources for non-conventional gas are coal bed methane in Poland and Germany. Shale gas may be a topic in the near future. Hydrocarbon consumption and transport The states of the Baltic Sea region are important oil and gas consumers. They consumed in 2008 about 180 Mt of oil (4.6 % of world consumption) and about 130 billion m³ (4.3 %) of natural gas. Main suppliers are Russia and Norway. There exists a good developed pipeline network linking the producer and the consumer centres. Some new pipeline projects, especially for gas, are under construction or consideration. The Baltic countries will be of importance for transit of oil and gas. Conclusions Despite a long production history a potential for future hydrocarbon exploration exists. The hydrocarbon potential is significantly lower than the potential of the Caspian and the North Sea regions and lower than the potential of the Black Sea region. The region will still stay a hydrocarbon consuming in the future too. The region is of importance for the transit of Russian oil and gas to Western Europe. Unconventional oil and gas can be an object of future investigations.