HUGE GAS DEPOSITS IN POLISH SANDSTONES
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Created on Thursday, 23 April 2015 09:45
Experts of the Polish Geological Institute and the National Research Institute revealed data from 500 boreholes from three geological complexes (Poznan-Kalisz zone, Wielkopolska-Śląsk zone and the western part of the Baltic basin). They found out that there are between 1,528 bn and 1,995 bn m3 of the so-called tight gas. Tight gas, like shale gas is not different from a gas from conventional deposits.
It consists mainly in flammable methane. The only thing that makes it different from the rest is the way in which it occurs. Tight gas is imprisoned in microscopic pore spaces of sandstones, but these spaces are not joined together. In order to release it you need to use – just like in case of releasing gas from shale – a hydraulic fracturing method. In this case, however, fracturing is much simpler and does not require applying any chemical components to fracturing liquid.
Geologists, however, are less optimistic. They say that exploitation of gas may be very expensive, especially when we take into account the depth where it can be found – 4,5 – 6 thousand metres. In Poland most prospective layers for occurrence of tight gas are from 1,800 to 6,000 metres. According to the data, in Poland there are between 150 and almost 200 bn m3 of gas which can be exploited. The annual consumption of gas in Poland is about 15 bn m3, a fourth of which is domestic exploitation.
Photo: www.pgi.gov.pl