PKN ORLEN has launched work on its first shale gas exploration well in the Mazowsze region, on concession block “Garwolin”. Present at the inauguration of the drilling were the Minister of the Treasury Mikołaj Budzanowski and the President of the PKN ORLEN’s Management Board Jacek Krawiec. 
 
The decision to locate the well-bore at Goździk, a village in the Górzno commune in the Garwolin county, was based on positive geological test results which suggest the presence of shale gas in this area at the depth of some 4000 meters. The expansion of prospecting into the Mazowsze region came in the wake of a decision to step up PKN ORLEN’s exploration programme in respect of natural gas from unconventional resources.  Goździk-OU1 is the third vertical well drilled by ORLEN. The company plans to drill 5-7 exploration wells this year, of which some will be horizontal with hydraulic fracturing. 
 
Drilling on the “Garwolin” concession block will last  about 60 days. The DRILLMEC DM-1300 rig,  one of the most modern pieces of drilling equipment used at present in Poland, arrived at Goździk straight from the Italian manufacturer.  After the well has been drilled some 400 meters of drill cores (rock samples) will be taken for laboratory testing. Based on results of the tests, which will be known towards the end of 2012, ORLEN Upstream will decide whether to proceed with exploration at the Goździk site. 
 
The kick-off of drilling on the Garwolin concession block coincided with the receipt by PKN ORLEN of test results of the rock samples taken late in 2011 from the Syczyn OU-1 well on the “Wierzbica” concession block in the Lublin region. These results were promising enough to warrant a decision to locate a horizontal well there. 
 
‘Here’s the answer to a repeatedly-asked question: “What comes after Euro 2012?”. Well, what comes is the exploration for and, thereafter, the extraction of Polish shale gas.  The Polish economy is going to be driven first by spending on successive wells and then, in several years’ time, by cheaper  gas the proceeds of which will be going to companies operating in this country rather than abroad’, said Jacek Krawiec. ‘Now that ORLEN has contracted for this year two state-of-the art pieces of equipment  and two drilling teams to work on successive locations, work in the Mazowsze province will proceed parallel with our activities in other parts of the country‘, emphasised the PKN ORLEN President. 
 
PKN ORLEN holds eight concessions for oil and gas exploration throughout the country: six in the Lublin and Mazowsze regions and two in the vicinity of the cities of Łódź and Sieradz. Currently preparations are underway for drilling the first exploration well in the Baltic Sea. The company has already signed a contract for a semi-submerged drilling rig to be located in the Latvian economic zone of the Baltic Sea. 
 
PKN ORLEN
Press Office