PLN 1 billion support to the development of a Polish shale gas extraction technology
One billion zlotys will be forthcoming to help develop a Polish shale gas extraction technology. The Industrial Development Agency and the National Research and Development Centre will provide PLN500m and the same amount will be contributed by companies interested in devising, jointly with scientific and research institutions, their own concepts.
Poland has a chance to become a European leader in shale gas production technology. Each day and each new bore hole brings us closer to an accurate estimate of the amount of the blue fuel captured in shale formations, and the exploitation of these reserves in the area between the Bug and the Oder is becoming a more and more realistic prospect. Independent organisations’ estimates suggest that Poland can count on reserves that will ensure the security of supplies for several next decades. Commercial development of shale gas reserves is the Poles’ civilisational chance for resource independence. Given the magnitude of this challenge and the projected gains, the shale gas extraction and use project has acquired a strategic dimension. Various parties are committed to this undertaking, from the government (including local governments) to extraction and energy companies, but yet another link in this chain is much needed: Polish higher education institutions (HEI) and scientific centres which will develop unique shale gas extraction processes tailored to the local conditions.
Experiences of European Union countries, North America and Asia show that close cooperation between the scientific community and industry produces tangible economic effects, and an alliance of this kind is now being forged with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the Ministry of the State Treasury. The Industrial Development Agency [ARP] and the National Research and Development Centre [NCBiR] are embarking on cooperation aimed at developing know-how of efficient shale gas extraction in Poland. In terms of scale and funding, this is the first project of this kind in Poland. Its total budget will be about PLN1bn, of which the ARP and NCBiR will contribute PLN250m each. The other 50% is to be provided by companies which, upon forming consortiums with scientific organisations, submit on a contest basis proposals of technological projects . A consortium is required to commit itself to a project budget within the range of PLN3m and PLN200m and to a project completion time of no more than 36 months. The cooperation programme provides for support to R&D projects of businesses/research consortiums whose proposals are graded the highest by experts. In each case the consortium leader will be an entrepreneur interested in implementing the designed technology. Having knowledge is not enough; the ability to apply it is also a must. On this logic, each newly-designed process will be tested in real conditions, on drilling sites.
The NCBiR’s contest for technological projects proposed by scientific/industrial consortiums is to be announced still in July, and major domestic extraction companies and Polish technical HEIs, scientific centres and research institutes are already known to be interested in entering it. The Polish government’s preference is for a business/HEI cooperation formula in which the business operator sets research tasks and selects academic and research teams which offer the best assurance of optimal project implementation. It was on precisely these lines that the National Research and Development Centre signed with the Polish Aviation Technology Platform, early this year, an agreement under which PLN300m was transferred from the state budget for research and development projects and activities supporting the dissemination of results in the aviation industry. The aviation companies associated in the Platform, for their part, declared to contribute PLN200m.
This joint funding programme is targeted at, among other projects, the development of airplane and helicopter engine technology and production processes. A similar model of cooperation was devised to fight civilisation-related diseases. Recently the National Research and Development Centre has launched a strategic R&D programme “Prophylactic and Treatment of Civilisational Diseases” – STRATEGMED – to encourage science/business consortiums to design new medical processes and procedures. The first contest for the implementation of these R&D projects is scheduled to be announced still this year. Positive as these examples are, there is still much to be done. According to 2010 data, in Poland only 24% of total R&D outlays is financed by businesses and about 70% is state- funded. In contrast, in Germany, Britain or France the proportions are reversed, with industry and business investing in R&D to the order of 60%. Many Polish firms use their profits to buy technology abroad.
The latest report by Innovation Union Scoreboard, while acknowledging that innovativeness is rising in Poland, notes that Polish entrepreneurs are still shy of innovation. Such attitude is an obstruction to achieving international success. The national project of fighting for Polish shale gas will change the scientific and business communities’ standards of perceiving each other, leading to entrepreneurs’ greater involvement in research programmes. We can apply solutions developed by other countries’ extraction industries, but the necessary know-how is not immediately obtainable – primarily because many issues are the subject of intensive development work, but also because, given the specific geological conditions in Poland, some solutions successfully employed elsewhere will not be equally effective here. Even accepting that Polish firms are not going to rely on indigenous unique processes, a stock of knowledge must be accumulated in Poland to enable the available technology to be applied at the highest level of safety.
All this means that the national-dimension business that shale gas is must be built on the foundations of tried and repeatedly tested indigenous knowledge. Moreover, a political dimension also comes into play. Competency and our own stock of reliable knowledge will make out extraction sector independent from upturns and downturns shaped by other states’ interests. Today foreign experts often speak of potential dangers incidental to shale gas extraction in Poland, citing – not always in an unbiased way – data relating to the situation in the U.S. and Canada. A strong domestic scientific base could provide a counterweight to these opinions. It is time to take advantage of an exceptional opportunity, so that not only does research turn money into knowledge, but Polish technology turns knowledge into money as well. This is possible owing to shale gas, and Poland has a unique chance to become Europe’s leader in shale gas extraction technology.
Source: Rzeczpospolita, 11 July 2012, by Mikołaj Budzanowski, Barbara Kudrycka