Poland Oil and Gas Profile
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Introduction

  • Oil represents less than one-quarter of Poland’s total primary energy supply (TPES), which remains dominated by indigenous sources of coal. Total oil demand is expected to grow moderately in the coming decade. The resulting need for expansion in both refinery and storage capacities – as well as the heavy reliance on imports of Russian crude oil – are among the main challenges facing Poland’s oil market.

Regulation

  • Exploration and exploitation of oil and gas deposits in Poland requires a licence granted by the Ministry of Environment.
  • The prices for liquid fuels depends on the prices of crude oil on the international markets, the rate of excise tax and fuel charge, as well as the exchange rate of zloty against USD and euro.
  • The prices of liquid fuels are not regulated by the ERO President, neither by any other administrative body.

Upstream

  • Poland produces very small quantities of crude oil and natural gas
  • Deposits of oil and natural gas have been discovered in the Carpathians, Carpathian Foreland (the Carpathian Depression), Sudetian Monocline and Pomerania. Currently there are 92 known and documented deposits of oil, estimated at 13.7 million tons. In 2000 underground deposits yielded 350,000 tons of oil (64,000 in the south and 279,000 in the Polish Lowland). This is far less than the country's needs: about 18 million tons of oil and 11 bcm of natural gas a year.
  • Since 1981 the Baltic shelf has been explored for oil. The Petrobaltic company, which holds a prospecting licence for 8,600 sq km of the shelf, has discovered the B3 deposit, situated 80km off the Rozewie Cape, and has started to exploit it. Another deposit, B8, will be soon ready for exploitation. The submarine resources, 1400m below the water surface, are estimated at 20 million tons. This is high-quality oil, almost sulphur-free. Today the Baltic oil accounts for about half of Poland's oil production.
  • The submarine oil deposits are accompanied by natural gas deposits; for every cubic metre of Baltic oil, there are 85 cubic metres of gas. So far, four gas-condensate deposits have been discovered, estimated at 10 bcm. This gas is planned to be utilized by a gas power station at Zarnowiec near Gdansk. Waste gas from the B3 field, now burning unproductively, will be transported through an 82km sea pipeline and then overland to the popular resort and major fishing harbour of Wladyslawowo, where it will be used by a thermal power plant.
  • As the Carpathian deposits have been largely used up and many of them are being closed down, now most of the country's oil and natural gas comes from the Polish Lowland. The significance of this region grew even more in 1996 with the finding of the Barnowko-Mostno-Buszewo (BMB) deposit near Gorzow Wielkopolski. This is Poland's biggest deposit, estimated at 10-12 million tons of oil and some 4.5 bcm of high-methane gas. The Polish Lowland natural gas is found mainly in Permian and Carboniferous rocks and has a high content of nitrogen. The gas from the Carpathians and Carpathian Foreland, found in Jurrasic, Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks, is of better quality, high on methane and low on sulphur.
  • Of the 242 documented deposits of natural gas in Poland, the biggest are: Przemysl in the Carpathian Foreland (nearly 21 bcm); Koscian (south-east of Poznan; 10.4 bcm), exploited only since 1999; and BMB. The biggest oil deposits are BMB and Cychry, also in the Polish Lowland.
  • According to a 2013 EIA study, Poland contained 148 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of technically recoverable shale gas resources

Active Companies

  • The PGNiG Group is the leader of the Polish natural gas market, as well as the only vertically integrated gas company in Poland.
  • 120 licences have been granted to foreign oil prospectors. Most of them (59 licence blocks) are held by companies co-established by Apache Corporation and FX Energy. Wielkopolska Energia SA, whose shareholders are El Paso Energy and Texaco, has 16 licences. Other licence holders include CalEnergy Gas Polska and RWE-DEA Polska Oil.

Crude Oils

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Midstream

  • Druzhba (Friendship) pipeline transports Russian crude oil to the Visegrad countries and to Western Europe. The pipeline splits in Belarus into northern and southern branches. The 1-million-barrel-per-day capacity northern branch brings oil to Poland and Germany.
  • The pipelines belonging to PERN "Przyjazn" SA play an important link of the Central European oil system Druzba, which is considered one of the biggest in the world.
  • The Polish stretch of the pipeline plays a significant role in export of Russian crude oil. Currently it carries about 30 pc of all crude exported by Russia. Only part of this oil remains in Poland for the use of Polish refineries. The remaining lot of oil flowing through the system reaches German recipients and Naftoport in Gdansk where it is loaded onto tanker-ships and transported further to the final recipients.
  • Until completion of Nord Stream Gas Pipeline, the Yamal-Europe pipeline, which is routed through Belarus and Poland to Germany, was Russia's only natural gas export pipeline to Europe that does not cross Ukrainian territory.

LNG

Downstream

  • The wholesale sale of fuels is conducted in more than 80% by PKN Orlen SA and Lotos Group SA, which of these two are also the main producers of fuels and as the only ones in the country produce liquid fuels from crude oil.
  • There are two refineries in operation in Poland, Plock Refinery, belonging to PKN Orlen SA and the Gdansk Refinery, of Lotos Group SA
  • Retail turnover of petrol, diesel oil and auto-gas is generally done At petrol stations. There are around 7000 petrol stations operating throughout the country as well as about 5 900 auto-gas stations. Around 50% of all the gas stations belong to individual enterprises, and the rest are owned or operate under logos belonging to such retail companies as: PKN Orlen SA, Grupa Lotos SA, Shell, Statoil, BP, Lukoil, Neste and so on. The market for petrol stations located in the proximity of large hypermarkets is developing very dynamically, as well.

Relevant Links

  1. Energy Regulatory Office, Fuels
  2. Natural Resources in Poland
  3. The Polish Geological Institute (PGI)
  4. EIA, Poland
  5. PERN "Przyjazn" SA, Crude Oil Logistics Company
  6. OLPP, Oil products Logistics Company
  7. Polish Organisation of Oil Industry and Trade (POPiHN)
  8. POPiHN 2009 Annual Report
  9. Energy diversification strategy for Poland

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