“We are carrying out horizontal drilling and fracturing on two concession blocks and we shall drill three vertical wells”, declares Orlen President Jacek Krawiec. The drilling is to kick off in mid-year. Orlen proposes to spend about PLN 800 million on the energy and exploration sector throughout 2012. From there, outlays on shale gas are to increase significantly. In its 2008 strategy the group declared it would spend PLN 700 million on the exploration and exploitation (“upstream”) segment over five years. Now it is going to spend much more. “We are in the process of approving the 2012 budget, but I can already say that outlays on upstream activity will be several times larger than originally planned”, says the Orlen President. The group counts on attracting a partner, a Polish operator with which to share the risk and the costs. Yesterday Orlen released its 2011 performance figures. Sales revenues rose by 4 percent, year-on-year, to PLN 106.97 billion. Net profit rose by PLN 0.6 billion, to PLN 3.1 billion.

 

Source: Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, 10.02.2012, p. 11, by Michał Duszczyk