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Canada's Marathon Oils plans 6-7 shale gas wells by end-2012

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Date: 2012-02-03 12:26

Canada's Marathon Oils Corporation, which holds 11 shale gas prospecting licenses in Poland, plans to drill 6-7 wells by the end of 2012, the firm has announced in a communique.


"Marathon Oil has drilled, cored and logged its first well in Poland, and is evaluating the data. The Company plans to drill and core three additional vertical wells over the next few months, and drill a total of six to seven wells by the end of 2012," the release reads.

The company began drilling operations in the Leczna and Siedlce districts in Q4/2011.

Marathon is the operator of 11 concessions in Poland totaling approximately 1.2 million net acres (2.3 million gross), with shale gas potential. The shales are Lower Paleozoic and may be the most significant opportunity for unconventional gas in central Europe, it also stressed.

Poland is the country with Europe's biggest deposits of this unconventional gas - the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates them at 187tr cubic feet (or around 5.3tr cu.m.). Poland's annual natural gas consumption is around 14bn cu.m.

The environment ministry has issued over 100 shale gas exploration licenses for US concerns including Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Canada's Lane Energy as well as Poland's PGNiG and PKN Orlen.

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