Keeping the home fires burning: in Poland
PGNiG plans output cash splash
Polish gas monopoly PGNiG is ready to spend €125 million ($167.2 million) on boosting its output in Poland this year.
"This year we will invest around €125 million (on production)," director of PGNIG's Brussels office, Pawel Konzal, said when asked how much the company would spend on expanding its domestic production.
PGNiG buys more than half of Poland's 14.6 billion cubic metres in annual gas consumption from abroad, mainly from Russia.
It has long sought to diversify its supplies by increasing production from domestic deposits and is investing in a new pipeline and liquefied natural gas terminal on the Baltic coast.
"We hope to bring between 2.5 billion to 3 Bcm from the North Sea a year, if we succeed in building the pipeline," Konzal told Reuters.
Poland plans to take natural gas from Norway via a series of pipelines crossing Swedish territory from the beginning of 2011.
Earlier this month PGNiG, which is 85% government-owned, announced a deal to buy a 15% stake in exploration licences from ExxonMobil to gain access to natural gas off the Norway coast.
PGNiG will pay $360 million for the stake, giving the Polish company partial access to around 35.8 Bcm of natural gas deposits.
The company also said in its presentation for investors that it expects to receive 2.5 Bcm of gas per year from the LNG terminal, which is expected to come on stream in 2011.