Shales in Poland do not provide enough opportunities for their exploitation

The shale deposits in Poland do not offer enough opportunities for their economic exploitation – evaluates the Ministry of Finance in the bill repealing the levy of the tax on the extraction of hydrocarbons .

In 2014, the Oil Tax Act was passed. Its main objective was to allow the public treasury to participate in profits from the extraction of hydrocarbons: oil, natural gas and their natural derivatives. The rules mainly concerned the future, it seemed, schist eldorado. Tax collection was to start in 2020.

Now, the government is changing its mind. The Department of Finance has just drafted a bill to repeal the collection of taxes.

The reason? In the impact analysis of the law, we read that "at the present time, shale deposits on Polish territory do not provide sufficient opportunities for economic exploitation".

Contrary to forecasts

"The legislators' assumptions that the hydrocarbon tax would provide the state budget with an appropriate share of the profits from shale gas production are not met." Contrary to forecasts, the extraction of shale gas was not developed in Poland, the basic source of this resource remains the conventional natural gas deposits, "added the minister.

According to the Ministry of Finance, according to the Ministry of Energy, as of April 30, 2017, 20 shale gas exploration licenses were in force in Poland. This means that compared to the status as of 1 July 2013, that is to say, the state that was assessed for the purposes of the law, when 108 licenses were issued in Poland, the number of concessions in force decreased by 81%.

"There is also a noticeable decrease in the dynamics of exploration and evaluation work behind shale gas," he wrote.

It was pointed out that the size and availability of the estimated shale gas deposits was considerably lower than expected, which was not without consequences on the extent of the economic operators' participation. to the exploration and production of this ore, and thus on the potential amount of tax revenue from this tribute.

It was also noted that the number of reporting entities for the hydrocarbon tax is decreasing and the vast majority of taxpayers are reporting a loss.

It was supposed to be a "schist el Dorado"

In 2010, public opinion electrified information on the results of US research, which showed that shale gas in Poland could even reach 1.5 trillion cubic meters of gas. If that were the case, the resources would be sufficient for 100 to 200 years. In June 2011, Britain's "The Economist" wrote that Poland may have the largest shale gas deposit in Europe and that the world's largest companies want to audit about 120 wells. in our country.

"The game is about a billion cubic meters of gas," wrote The Economist. We had to become – like the United States – a shale el Dorado. In addition to the leaders of the Polish industry – PGNiG and PKN Orlen – the world powers: ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Marathon, Eni, Talisman Energy and Lane Energy have joined the race for our shale.

In the end, only a few dozen boreholes were drilled in Poland and their results were difficult to consider as narcotic. As a result, the following companies announced their departure from exploration and resigned their concessions.