Gaz z łupków spod dna Bałtyku

Abstract

Shale gas from the Baltic offshore.A b s t r a c t. The accomplishment of the vision of exploration and in particular of exploitation of shale oil and shale gas in a perspective of a few years’time seems to be unrealistic. Interest in unconventional deposits occurs amongst small entities seeking a satisfactory return on their investments and becoming pioneers like George P. Mitchell 40 years ago. It is not only a result of high costs or lack of a sufficient technology but most notably the result of lack of an involvement of the key players in the global market. European companies, for instance, are closer to exploration of the new shale gas deposits onshore, although some of them declare to make an offshore research too. While Poland is today’s leader of shale gas exploration on the continent, it is also facing a problem of the lack of appropriate technologies of working at sea and country’s shales in general. In addition, the potential resources from the Baltic Sea bed, belonging to the Lower Paleozoic formations (Ordovician–Silurian) in the Baltic Basin, characterized by a good performance and shallower location than onshore deposits, are over four times more expensive to explore than on the land, which causes that there is no reason for recognizing them as economically recoverable resources. Therefore, any exploration of gas and oil from unconventional deposits in the Baltic Sea will have no economic justification within the next few years, but should only be considered as research.