The Polish giant and Energy Resources of Ukraine (ERU) on Monday signed an agreement to work together in drilling for and extracting gas from deposits that straddle the Polish-Ukrainian border, the news agency said.
It quoted ERU Managing Partner Dale Perry as saying during the signing ceremony in Warsaw that the team-up was “a very promising project.”
Meanwhile, PGNiG CEO Piotr Woźniak told reporters that gas-bearing fields in western Ukraine across the Polish border were expected to be “analogous” to those near the Polish city of Przemyśl.
"There is simply gas there," Woźniak said of the Ukrainian fields, as quoted by the energetyka24.com website.
He added that gas extracted across the Ukrainian border would help meet demand in that country and could also be exported to Poland.
PGNiG CEO Piotr Woźniak and ERU Managing Partner Dale Perry shake hands on the deal. Photo: PAP/Marcin Obara
Poland’s PGNiG said in February last year that it had found new deposits of natural gas not far from the southeastern Polish city of Przemyśl.
The reserves were at the time judged to hold enough gas to be mined for decades.
The latest deal comes at a time when Poland is working intensely to reduce its dependence on Russia for gas.
Poland's PGNiG said last month it would not renew a long-term deal on gas imports with Russia’s Gazprom when the contract expires at the end of 2022.
(gs/pk)
Source: PAP, energetyka24.com