Shale Gas in Poland. Financial, Political and Legal Outline

Abstract

The emergence of the shale gas on the global fuel market resulted in considerable changes in the perception of energy capacity of many countries. This might be considered a threat to the states being only exporters of the natural gas from conventional sources. The economic unity of such powers as Russia or Qatar may lead to a serious crisis in energetic sectors of such countries in the event of eventual success of mass exploitation of the shale gas. So far, however, the only country that could be considered successful in the field of exploitation of shall gas is still the US. The scale of the natural deposits, their wealth and - above all – their price speak for the continuation of the production process. It seems that EU countries cannot count on similar success. There are couple of reasons for that. Among them, the fist one are problems of the technical nature. Natural, unconventional gas deposits in Europe are located much deeper than similar deposits in United States. Besides that, there is still a problem with the density of population in the areas that could potentially be a source of shale gas. This, in turn, is linked heavily to the issue of environment protection. Despite the assurance of safety coming from the circles of experts or corporations interested in this process, voices saying about negative impact of exploiting shale gas on the environment can be heard more and more loudly. Many European countries are also bonded by contracts for the supply of natural gas from Norway, Qatar or the Russian Federation. Since the shares in the joint investment are the domain of the largest companies representing a broad spectrum of European energy sector, they form kind of lobby on further works on conventional sources. More often than not – own, particular interests decide in this matter. Despite the initial optimistic information about the possibility of exploitation of Polish natural shale gas deposits it’s hard to stay optimistic judging the chances for the future. The natural deposits of shale gas in Poland obviously and undoubtedly exist and that is a fact, but they are still much smaller than it was previously assumed. It is also unclear whether the production of gas from conventional deposits will be profitable enough. Exploratory work should give answers to these questions within a decade. It seems, however, that Poland should equally invest in both unconventional gas, as well as liquefied gas terminal in Świnoujście and the support for “energetic solidarity” within the European Union.