“The search for the energy resources in Poland should be the priority”, said Prime Minister Tusk on Tuesday at a scientific and business conference devoted to shale gas in Warsaw. Poles are waiting for this gas,” emphasized Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Tusk participated in the conference devoted to shale gas, organised by ORLEN Upstream, a PKN ORLEN Capital Group company. Prime Minister emphasised that the search for resources in Poland, e.g. shale gas, fits into the complete energy supply diversification strategy, not only in our country but also all over Europe. He added that the resources also constituted political weapon that is why Poland should, in his opinion, be independent of the external supplies as much as possible.
"When we understood that Polish energy sector, which so overwhelmingly relies on coal, requires a true revolution, when we understood that gas and oil became a strategic political factor (...), then we also understood that the search for own energy sources must be the priority for Poland", said Tusk. "We have to use every opportunity in order to find the new sources”, he emphasised.
“Poland becomes a key place for materialising common energy market in the EU”, said Tusk, also declaring that as Prime Minister he would be engaging himself personally in the optimization of conditions for the exploration, research, logistics and the business related to the production of shale gas.
“We are determined, (...) so that the search for and the use of shale gas in Poland becomes a fact", stated Tusk. "We have answered the question ‘whether’. Today we are looking for an answer to the question ‘how’”. The ‘how’ includes both technological as well as economic and financial problem. It has to be safe for the environment, technologically feasible on a large scale, it must be profitable. Our determination is clear: every cubic meter of gas in Poland must be used if possible”, he added.
He expressed the hope that it might happen that one of the fruits of the Tuesday’s debate would be the feeling of security and hope for the millions of people who "do not have to understand the technology of shale gas extraction but have the right to believe that their energy security is in good hands", “that the institutions and politicians care for the energy future”, he added. "Poles are waiting for this gas", PM ended his speech.
Earlier, the President of PKN Orlen, Jacek Krawiec, said that shale gas resources could fundamentally change the resource market in Poland and in Europe. "The need to obtain gas from shale is especially important for Europe where the consumption will grow in the next years by 90 billion cubic meters a year and the production in Europe will drop by over 100 billion cubic meters, so Europe will became even more dependant on imports if no extraction of shale gas takes place”, emphasised Krawiec.
Both the representatives of the mining industry as well as scientists participate in a two day conference entitled “Evolution of the Mental Picture of Tight Shales” at the Copernicus Science Centre. The conference was opened by the President of ORLEN Upstream, Mr. Wiesław Prugar, who stated that natural gas was a fuel of the future and a strong foundation of the energy balance. In his opinion, the development of non-conventional gas extraction in Europe would be competitive to the economic interests of Russia and the development of non-conventional gas resources might lead to the improved energy independence.
Further discussions during the conference regard strictly scientific and highly specialised matters: presence of appropriate shales in Poland, properties of deposits and new methods of their testing, technical aspects of gas extraction, evolution of costs of such process.
source: PAP