An oil and gas deposit has been found off the north coast of Poland.
From the link:
Preliminary assessments suggest the well contains an estimated 22 million tonnes of recoverable crude oil and condensate, along with 5 billion cubic metres of commercial-grade natural gas.
The broader concession area spans 593 square kilometers and may hold over 33 million tonnes of oil and 27 billion cubic metres of gas, significantly expanding Poland’s known reserves. As of 2023, the country’s estimated oil reserves stood at just over 20 million tonnes, meaning this single discovery could more than double the national total.
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22 to 33 million tonnes of oil is actually not that big, but this might be a conservative estimate. Further exploration in the Baltic might find more hydrocarbons under the sea.
Not everyone is happy with Poland developing this find.
Local politicians in north-eastern Germany were up in arms on Tuesday, after news broke that a major oil and gas deposit has been discovered in neighbouring Poland, with some experts also cautioning against extraction.
The find off the Polish Baltic coast by Canadian company Central European Petroleum (CEP) was hailed as a possible “breakthrough moment” in Poland, but officials across the border in Germany were quick to point out that extracting fossil fuels should not take priority in times of climate change.
“Our future does not lie in oil from the Baltic Sea, but in energy from the sun, wind and biomass,” said Till Backhaus, environment minister of the coastal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which borders Poland.
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It is difficult to tell the Poles they shouldn’t develop their energy resources, when China currently burns 4.5 billion tons of coal every year, and will continue to do so, no matter what the Poles do with their newfound oil.
_ Pete