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The Time for Burning Coal Has Passed

Active Citizens , Active Citizens , Civil Society , Climate Change , Editors’ Choice , Energy , Environment , Europe , Featured , Headlines , Natural Resources , Projects , TerraViva United Nations Anti-coal human chain crossing the Niesse river which separates Poland and Germany, August 2014. Credit: Courtesy of Greenpeace Poland GRABICE, Poland / PROSCHIM, Germany, Aug 26 2014 (IPS) – “People have gathered here to tell their politicians that the way in which we used energy and our environment in the 19th and 20th centuries is now over,” says Radek Gawlik, one of Poland’s most experienced environmental activists. “The time for burning coal has passed and the sooner we understand this, the better it is for us.” Gawlik was one of over 7,500 people who joined an 8-kilometre-long human chain at the weekend linking the German village of Kerkwitz with the Polish village of Grabice to oppose […]

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Polish shale developments going ‘smoothly’

British energy company 3Leg Resources said Friday efforts to bring Polish shale natural gas into production are going "very smoothly." The company said it put a well in the Lublewo research area in to a test phase to determine its potential to produce natural gas following a successful hydraulic fracturing program. Kamlesh Parmar, the company’s chief executive, said the well is a milestone for the exploration program in Poland . "The operations to bring the well into test production have gone very smoothly and we are delighted to see the well has flowed [natural gas] from the beginning," he said in a statement. The European Investment Bank in June loaned Poland $132 million for the expansion of a pipeline that could bring gas, including domestically sourced liquefied natural gas, to the border of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine. The EIB said the Polish gas project is "crucial" to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Polish shale developments going 'smoothly'

British energy company 3Leg Resources said Friday efforts to bring Polish shale natural gas into production are going "very smoothly." The company said it put a well in the Lublewo research area in to a test phase to determine its potential to produce natural gas following a successful hydraulic fracturing program. Kamlesh Parmar, the company’s chief executive, said the well is a milestone for the exploration program in Poland . "The operations to bring the well into test production have gone very smoothly and we are delighted to see the well has flowed [natural gas] from the beginning," he said in a statement. The European Investment Bank in June loaned Poland $132 million for the expansion of a pipeline that could bring gas, including domestically sourced liquefied natural gas, to the border of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine. The EIB said the Polish gas project is "crucial" to […]

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Polish oil and natural gas production rising

| License Photo Oil and natural gas production in Poland increased during the second quarter of the year, state energy company PGNiG said in a Tuesday report. In an amended quarterly report , the state energy company said it produced roughly 2.2 million barrels of oil during the full second quarter of the year, a 33 percent increase year-on-year. For natural gas, the company said its second quarter production volume was nearly 40 billion cubic feet, a 3.7 percent increase over the same period last year. The European Investment Bank last month loaned Poland $132 million for the expansion of a pipeline that could bring gas, including domestically sourced liquefied natural gas, to the border of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine. The EIB said the Polish gas project is "crucial" to European energy security. Poland is thought to be rich in shale natural gas reserves. In April, PGNiG […]

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Europe lends cash to Polish gas project

The European Investment Bank said a Polish natural gas pipeline project will add a layer of diversity to the European gas corridor. EIB said it was lending $132 million to Polish natural gas transmission company Gaz-System for the expansion of a pipeline that could bring gas, including domestically sourced liquefied natural gas, to the border of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine "This marks an important step towards better security of the energy supply in Europe," Laszlo Baranyay, EIB vice president in charge of lending in Poland, said in a statement from Luxembourg . The EIB said the Polish gas project is "crucial" to European energy security . Dubbed the Lwowek-Odolanow gas pipeline, it will have a length of 100 miles once it’s completed in 2017. Russian energy company Gazprom said Monday it would send natural gas through Ukraine only if it was paid in advance. European consumers get […]

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Tusk Taps Tough-Talking Miner to Wean Poland From Russia Energy

Polish Premier Donald Tusk’s drive to break the ex-communist nation’s links to Russia ’s energy chain by modernizing the domestic coal industry is giving Miroslaw Taras sleepless nights. Tusk tapped Taras, a 59-year-old ex-miner whose leadership of publicly-traded Lubelski Wegiel Bogdanka SA made it profitable before he left in 2012, to do the same for state-owned rival, Kompania Weglowa SA. Kompania, Europe’s largest coalminer, is buried in debt and teeters on bankruptcy at a time when the dispute between Russia and Ukraine risks disrupting the 89 billion cubic meters of gas shipped annually from OAO Gazprom (GAZP) through Ukraine, or 55 percent of its total exports to Europe. Tusk is betting Taras’s ability to fix Kompania and streamline its bloated workforce without slashing jobs will cushion energy shocks from the east. “I feel damn responsible for all these people and each one individually,” Taras said in an interview on […]

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Poland referred to EU court for violating environmental rules

The European Commission said Wednesday it referred Poland to a regional court of justice for violating rules on greenhouse gases. "The European Commission has decided to refer Poland to the EU Court of Justice for failing to notify to the Commission what penalties have been put in place in case the EU rules for companies and personnel undertaking certain activities with fluorinated gases are not observed," the commission said in a statement . European law requires companies to take steps to reduce the amount of fluorinated gases, a harmful pollutant, leaked into the atmosphere. The European Commission said it sent a request to Poland to address the issue in November. The ruling follows a series of scathing reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warning that global climate change is out of control. The European Commission said action to curb the release of […]

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Polish shale gas future bright for BNK Petroleum

BNK Petroleum President Wolf Regener said Tuesday he was "very excited" about the results from a Polish shale natural gas operation. BNK, which has headquarters in California, said the 285,000 acres it controls in Poland have "good potential to produce natural gas." It said Tuesday exploratory drilling results in the Gapowo B-1 well were positive and the company was anticipating a production test later this year. "In Poland, I am very excited that we have confirmed our original discovery in the Gapowo B-1 vertical well," Regener said in a statement. The company said a separate 285,000 acres has the potential to produce natural gas, but has a "higher associated risk." New drilling technologies like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, dubbed fracking, are used in shale deposits to access oil and gas reserves previously out of reach. That helped put the United States in […]

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Poland to Accelerate Work on Setting Regulations for Shale Gas Industry

Poland will speed up work on setting regulations for its nascent shale gas industry, officials said Wednesday after a London-listed operator hit reserves it described last month as being potentially commercially viable. Poland is one of the most promising exploration sites for shale gas in the European Union, with enough estimated reserves to allow for decades of consumption. So far only some 50 wells have been drilled, with mixed results and too few to evaluate Poland’s shale gas potential more precisely than in initial estimates. According to a report from the Polish Geological Institute in March 2012, the country has reserves of between 346 billion and 768 billion cubic meters of recoverable shale gas. Poland’s Environment Minister Maciej Grabowski said Wednesday he expects to see some 30 new shale gas drillings carried out this year as the government puts its new, more business-friendly regulations on a fast track. The […]

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BNK Petroleum upbeat about Polish shale

BNK Petroleum, which has headquarters in California, said it was upbeat about the shale potential in Poland following the start of a drilling campaign. BNK said it started a horizontal drilling program at Polish shale well Gapowo B-1 and expects to spend the next 30 days on the operation. The company said it was targeting gas deposits encountered in similar operations, where "the average and maximum total gas readings were much higher than those seen in the company’s other Baltic Basin wells." New drilling technologies like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, dubbed fracking, are used in shale deposits to access oil and gas reserves previously out of reach. That helped put the United States in a leadership position in terms of production of those resources. Poland is one of the Eastern European countries thought to be rich in shale gas, though the U.S. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple