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Near the Polish city Belchatow, there is the country’s largest coalmine, as The New York Times writes. It supplies coal to the largest coal power plant in Europe, which is nearby.
Poland is a kind of coal center of Europe. Almost 88% of the country’s electricity is produced by coal-fired power plants. Belchatow is one of the largest electricity producers. It is Poland that accounts for a significant portion of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe.
This year, the UN Climate Change Conference will be held in Poland. Many environmentalists are sure that it was difficult to find a less suitable place in the world. While the EU is developing ambitious cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, Poland is increasing its dependence on hydrocarbons.
Blocking laws
The country is trying to block many laws to combat climate change and is seeking permission to use the technology of hydraulic explosion, which allows extracting oil and gas from shale. The EU believes that they pose a threat to the environment of Europe.
Polish officials and politicians say that the country cannot afford to give up coal and switch to other types of energy.
The situation with oil production
Poland intends to increase hydrocarbon production on its territory.
As the Polish media reported on November 9, 2015, thanks to the development of new technologies, new gas and oil deposits were discovered, and there was an opportunity for better exploitation of wells that had already been developed. Let us note that today in Poland 30 million barrels of oil are produced per year. As the main region of production should be noted the southeastern part of Poland – Subcarpathians. Meanwhile, the exploitation of the already explored Polish fields was steadily declining.
According to data of 2014, production of 1.2 million tons of oil and 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas were registered.
Despite fairly high estimates of the potential of new oil and gas fields and the use of new technologies in their development, the total cost of exploration and production in Poland is estimated at about 380 million Euros.