PEOPLE
25 TOP
PEOPLE
most influential people in Polish shale gas It’s been four years since the first shale gas concessions were granted in Poland in the quiet halls of the ministries. The market isn’t up to full speed yet but it has grown enough to identify its movers and shakers. Here are our picks.
CREATIVE COMMONS
BY SHALE GAS INVESTMENT GUIDE
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1/George
Soros George Soros is an investor, and like all investors, he likes to make money. He’s also an activist, and like all activists, he likes things done his way.
dear to Mr. Soros than promoting the values of an open society by strengthening democratic institutions. Creatively, he sees shale as a way to do both. Mr. Soros comes from a well-educated family that suffered under Nazi occupation in Hungary for their Jewish roots. He was only 13 years old when forced by Nazis to hand out deportation notices to Jewish lawyers in the in Hungarian capital Budapest - ultimately they were orders for transport to Auschwitz. Later, he made a fortune in 1997 betting against the Bank of England, and in support of various causes, he’s given away at least €7 billion of his wealth, including an endowment to the Central European University in Budapest worth €400 million. Mr. Soros sees shale as a means for Central European states - Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria among them - to strengthen their democracies by improving their energy independence. Liberty aside - if Europe’s resource base is proven up as in North America - his investments could bring large returns to his hedge fund. “It’s very important, the
revival of shale gas and shale oil, as a cheap source of energy which has made manufacturing more competitive,” Mr. Soros told CNN in 2011. Through Soros Fund Management (SFM), a hedge fund with some €25 billion under management, he’s placed upstream bets in several explorers. Although his specific positions are unknown, he’s invested in San Leon Energy, via its 2011 purchase of Realm Energy, and increased his position as the explorer grew to be the largest acreage holder in Europe. Along with Blackrock, Soros has pushed funds to take on exploration risk, telling governments that a more energy-independent Europe is more secure from outside influence (read: Russia). How’s he doing? Since making an early bet on shale, the value of his investment portfolio has taken a hit, prompting the SFM to dismiss two of its managers who were overseeing his European oil and gas portfolio. But don’t count Mr. Soros out. He’s been ahead of the growth curve in other sectors before. According to at least one explorer, Mr. Soros isn’t yet second guessing the bets he made.
Mr. Soros has been ahead of the growth curve in other sectors before. According to at least one explorer, he isn’t yet second guessing the bets he made on shale gas
PAP /EPA LAURENT GILLIERON
NO CAUSE, PERHAPS, is more
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2/John
Buggenhagen IF THERE’S ANYONE with a plan,
it’s John Buggenhagen, exploration director for San Leon Energy. In a recent interview, Mr. Buggenhagen opened up his laptop to show a production plan covering northern Poland. He and his team have field scouted sites suitable for drilling wells, building facilities and laying pipelines. With the support of investors like Blackrock Investments and George Soros’ Quantum Fund, Mr. Buggenhagen’s company stands a chance of commercializing their Polish acreage.
The asset purchase of Realm Energy and last year’s merger with Aurelian Oil along with a handful of other joint ventures including one with Talisman Energy - have given the London-listed explorer a huge footprint, totaling some 17 million net acres (close to 69,000 square kilometers) throughout Europe and North Africa. San Leon Energy - which began as two guys operating out of the Marriott Hotel - is now the big guy on campus with a staff of some 50 employees and the clout of an explorer
“San Leon Energy - which began as two guys operating out of the Marriott Hotel - is now the big guy on campus with 50 employees and the clout of an explorer hungry to make things happen” It wasn’t always that way. As recent as 2010, San Leon Energy was a paper explorer with scattered assets and no real capital to fund their exploration.
that is hungry to make things happen. Mr. Buggenhagen makes our list of the top 25 most influential people for having been outspoken at a time when
other operators want to stay under the radar. A bullish American with a pioneering spirit and a cosmopolitan leaning - he lived also in Budapest - he is a self-described “conservationist” who loves nature and river rafting (see profile on page 44). On the future of shale in Europe, Mr. Buggenhagen thinks the NOCs will begin to look inward. “Bottom line, a lot of companies are struggling to find places to invest their money. I really believe the majors forgot how to explore and they rely on companies like San Leon to bring projects to them at a more mature level. And I’ve heard from senior management from many companies who say they are happy to pay to get involved if there’s something there to chase,” he said. That’s business, though, something that Mr. Buggenhagen has been an old hand at. In Poland, he also needs to take care to influence the shaping of the regulatory regime the operators’ way. Right now, there’s hardly anything that Mr. Buggenhagen likes about the upcoming new shale gas laws. “As in any negotiation both sides are going to have to find an amicable solution in the end,” he said.
SZYMON SZCZESNIAK
Outspoken at a time when other operators keep quiet, John Buggenhagen, a bullish American with a pioneering spirit and a cosmopolitan leaning, is a towering figure in the Polish shale gas industry.
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3/Donald
Tusk
First he hyped shale gas, now he seems to be decimating the ranks of people involved in executing his plan. What does Prime Minister Donald Tusk really think?
third place on this list owes to the power he wields in the highly politicized affair that shale gas is in Poland. He’s also been influential in a negative way. Some have been rather disappointed in how he has handled shale gas so far. In this issue, we’ve often referred to the chain of events that led Mr. Tusk to dismissing the treasury minister Mikołaj Budzanowski, the man who engineered the collaboration of statecontrolled companies to explore for shale in the Baltic Basin. According to Mr. Tusk, the minister should have watched more closely PGNiG’s dealings with Gazprom. Some say Mr. Tusk made a mistake, and gave in to the age-old idea that if Russia’s involved in anything, it cannot end well for Warsaw. To cut speculations that he’s a powerless subject to the games Russian president Vladimir Putin plays, Mr. Tusk struck a strongman’s pose and got rid of an important minister, which had the effect of undermining Poland’s shale gas ambitions. That, of course, is just one of the theories. Another less likely one is that
Mr. Tusk no longer believes in Polish shale gas. Getting rid of Mr. Budzanowski will make it easier for him to depart from providing conditions for its development, the energy source Mr. Tusk once said “all Poles were waiting for.”
idea that you just need to stick a straw in an orange, it’s rather a time-consuming and expensive process that doesn’t always yield success. Unlike conventionals, the production of gas from shales is rather like manufacturing. Operators must drill one well after
Once the country’s most powerful figure thinks that the dream is over, it can end for real In 2011, Mr. Tusk was everywhere, delivering keynote speeches at conferences and hyping shale gas beyond what made sense to industry observers. The high point of the optimistic rhetoric came at PGNiG’s well pad in Lubocino, where Mr. Tusk said that shale gas would flow as early as in 2015. There’s not much to suggest that will happen. Most likely Mr. Tusk simply doesn’t understand the effort it takes to kick off production. Far from the everyman’s
another in a routine, mechanized way, rather than producing from a reservoir. Flow rates decline quickly too. That’s why the lack of progress in Polish shale gas doesn’t necessarily mean the dream is over. What’s more problematic is that if the country’s most powerful figure thinks the dream is over, it can end for real. If the will to pass legislation changes, the government’s energy policy will goe in a different direction. Lignite coal, anyone?
PAP/ADAM WARŻAWA
PRIME MINISTER Donald Tusk’s
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4/ Prugar Wiesław
“We’re planning to drill six wells by 2013,” Mr. Prugar told this magazine in 2011. Poland’s most effective shale gas manager is right on plan.
recently as April 2013, Orlen Upstream, led by Wiesław Prugar, is one of the leaders in shale gas exploration in Poland to date. Orlen Upstream is not to be confused with its mother company, the state-controlled PKN Orlen. No, this Orlen is totally dedicated to unconventionals and doesn’t have to concern itself with a particular political ideology. Freed from having to check in with the ministries every time he needs to do anything, Mr. Prugar has put his energy to rolling out an exploration program on the company’s concessions. Their most recent well drilled was Stręczyn-OU 1, the third well drilled on their Wierzbica concession. Mr. Prugar is also moving to frack the SyczynOU2K well in the same concession and Berejów-OU2K well on the Lubartów concession later in 2013. Not only is Orlen Upstream’s exploration program going forward as planned, but the company is growing its acreage as well. The departure of ExxonMobil from Poland gave ground to a lot of speculation that Polish shale gas was not much more than an unimportant episode in the global unconventional frenzy; a classic ‘could-have-been’. For Orlen Upstream, it was an opportunity to expand and take over new acreage. The
first well on one of the two newly acquired concessions is likely to be drilled before the end of the year, the company said in February. In other words, if there are any companies in the Polish shale gas market that could be considered to be making decisive steps towards production, Orlen Upstream belongs in the leading trio, alongside ConocoPhillips and San Leon Energy. Mr. Prugar’s progress toward a position in unconventionals went along a classic road seen in many Polishborn oil and gas executives. A gradu-
Janez Potocnik: having the last laugh?
ate of the Kraków University of Science and Technology (better known as AGH), he also completed postgraduate studies on power market management at the Gliwice University of Technology (another top hub for Poland managers and engineers in the power industry) and company finance at the Warsaw School of Economics. Before he went to PKN Orlen to build a team of oil and gas E&P specialists, Mr. Prugar worked in Kraków-based Institute of Oil and Gas and at the Polish Oil and Gas Company (PGNiG).
Janez
5/ Potocnik A remote figure as he may seem to many in the oil and gas community in Poland, Janez Potocnik’s influence must be reckoned with.
Led by Wiesław Prugar, Orlen Upstream’s exploration program is one of few on track
JANEZ POTOCNIK, European
PAP
WITH THEIR SIXTH well drilled as
EUROPEAN COMMISION
PEOPLE
Mr. Potocnik will have a hard time juggling the interests of all involved in shale gas: from environmentalists to oil and gas majors
Commissioner for the Environment, could give Europe’s shale gas ambitions a boost or lay it in the grave. Late last year, the European Parliament passed a resolution that rejected an EU-wide fracking ban but still called for the development of robust rules to ensure safety in unconventional hydrocarbon extraction. This came despite earlier reports that the rules currently in place suffice to exercise control over fracking. Many in the shale gas sector are afraid that the “robust rules” impossible to follow and therefore will ground the industry before it has had
a chance to take off. Mr Potočnik is overseeing what solutions could be applied. “We have initiated work to propose before the end of 2013 an adequate risk management framework for unconventional fossil fuels, in particular shale gas developments, in Europe. We are currently assessing what form such a framework should take,” Mr. Potočnik said in November last year. In late March, the Commission finished lengthy consultations on the issue, the results of which are expected to be made available this summer at an invitation-only stakeholders’ event will be organized by the Directorate-General Environment in early
June in Brussels. Mr. Potočnik will have a hard time juggling the interests of some environmental groups opposing fracking altogether, countries with moratoria and others, like Poland, who are investing large sums to make shale gas a viable energy source for decades to come. Whatever the outcome, the Commissioner will definitely influence the direction in which the discussions will unfold, which way the regulation will lean, and in consequence, what regulatory environment there will be for shale gas E&P in the EU.
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6/ St. Aubin
Karpinski
(€120,000) deposit to the account of a local NGO as a security for the protection of the environment. “If you make too much noise, then you won’t get your deposit back,” one member of the organization suggested. Understandably, ConocoPhillips doesn’t pay deposits as security measures, but the company, as elsewhere, will be under constant supervision by local residents, and skeptics are certain to pounce on the company’s missteps. So far, 3Legs Resources has done rather well engaging the local community. It’s up to Ms. Aubin to take the lead from the independent explorer, and understand the local community’s concerns. How she does in Poland could set the dominant tone for further developments in years to come.
taking forever to get started. When he was handed the ministerial nomination in late April 2013, he said he would carry out a “review” of the executive leadership in the Polish Oil and Gas Company (PGNiG). This ended with the company’s board axing the CEO Grażyna Piotrowska-Oliwa and the chief commercial officer Radosław Dudziński. Now, Mr. Karpiński says, he’s going to run an audit in the ministry to know what he’s gotten himself into. Even without the audit, however, he can be sure that the treasury is one of the ministries in Poland where working is like walking on very thin ice. A full or controlling owner of several big and strategic companies, Mr. Karpiński will somehow have to get those companies’ business strategies and Poland’s policy goals to meet. They don’t always dovetail. Earlier in 2013, the Polish government had to stomach utility Polska Grupa Energetyczna’s decision not to invest in new power generation capacity, amidst political fears that Poland is soon facing power shortages. At the nomination ceremony again, Prime Minister Donald Tusk made his expectations of Mr. Karpiński very clear. “I’m expecting him to make iron
Włodzimierz Karpiński: iron-fisted?
MINISTRY OD TREASURY
and development. In Poland she has taken a pragmatic, boots-on-theground approach, even going herself to the north to speak with residents. In one such meeting, Ms. St. Aubin met personally with residents in the municipality of Strzeszewo in the local community of Wicko. There, Ms. Aubin was asked many questions, some coming from residents who were skeptical that her company’s operations would be done safely and quietly. The biggest concern was that drinking water could be fouled. Ms. Aubin addressed concerns by saying that her company supports the disclosure of fracking fluids, and emphasized that ConocoPhillips has many years of experience exploring for oil and gas. Residents also pressed the joint venture to pay a half million złoty
Włodzimierz
NOT THAT MR. KARPINSKI’S is
Former VP of ConocoPhillips’ exploration and development in Australia is now one of the most active explorer in the otherwise sluggish Polish market.
ConocoPhillips in Poland, heads the international oil company’s Polish operations, centered in the Baltic basin. This spring, ConocoPhillips will begin operations on several wells in the basin. Ms. Aubin has the challenge of proving up the resource in an area of the country with the most promising geology, and some of the most engaged local communities. After ConocoPhillips exercised their option to take a 70 percent interest in a joint venture with independent explorer 3Legs Resources, Ms. St. Aubin assumed the role as the most active explorer in a market that has seen drilling activity slow in recent months. ConocoPhillips has global reach, and Ms. St. Aubin has worked as far afield as Australia as the VP of exploration
7/
He been in office for just a few weeks, so the new treasury minister’s influence on shale gas is a mystery. It will take until end of 2013 to see how Mr. Karpinski is doing.
Laurie
LAURIE ST. AUBIN, president of
PEOPLE
Ms. Aubin has the challenge of proving up the resource in an area of the country with the most promising geology, and some of the most engaged local communities
hard decisions that are necessary so as to not put Poland’s energy security at risk,” Mr. Tusk said. Given the cause of recent changes at PGNiG, Mr. Karpiński could be reading Prime Minister’s words as guidance not to let PGNiG do any business with Russia other than the current supply contract, which some say, Poland hopes to review if and when shale gas is found. But it’s not just PGNiG in Mr. Karpiński’s portfolio. There are energy utilities that might not be all-to-happy
co-financing shale gas exploration. Poland’s current energy policy is all about quick, cheap energy, and a strong continued investment portfolio will take some negotiating. Shale gas production in Poland is, if anything, a long term goal, which politicians don’t always care for, preferring short term actions that are more immediately beneficial in political terms. We haven’t had enough time to accurately tell how Mr. Karpiński will do but we’ll all know soon enough.
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8/Objector EIA
It’s no wonder that operators, experts, and authorities are constantly talking about public acceptance for shale gas operations. Without popular support, or at least indifference, the exploration effort is doomed to fail.
PAP/WOJCIECH PACEWICZ
Concerned? Yes. Hostile? Not necessarily. Reasonable? Very often
POLISH PEOPLE MAY NOT have
an individual right to natural resources - the government does - but drilling still takes place on someone’s property where permission for access must be obtained from the owner. This has often proven difficult in Poland because of several misconceptions surrounding shale gas exploration, fracking in particular. That fracking causes water pollution is perhaps the most powerful and overstated objection used to frighten people. If it’s feared, regardless of factuality, it does remain a legitimate concern that the operators and anyone working in the oilfield should address. Other than that, in a country that is far more densely populated than Texas,
shale gas operations do cause problems and local residents have every right to exercise pressure on operators to reduce the impact of, say, trucking to and from well pads. Operators, in turn, should be pro-active and pre-empt concerns, sometimes even hostility, by reaching out to communities, for example via meetings or organizing open days on well pads. There are numerous operators who have done just that with good results, but there are also examples of those who have disregarded concerns of local communities for no good reason. Operators need to be aware that objectors, even if sometimes misinformed about the technicalities of shale gas operations, can be acting genuinely out of concern.
Operators need to be aware that objectors, even if sometimes misinformed about the technicalities of shale gas operations, can be acting genuine out of concern In what perhaps has been the most positive development in Poland in the last 20 years or so, Poles have learned to take care of their immediate environs: associations, spontaneous groups and other forms of grass roots activity have made impact everywhere. Opposing change is part and parcel of this revival of citizens’ awareness. This is something that should be remembered when people assemble to protest or simply voice their concerns. That many of these individuals are an active part of local society and aren’t necessarily acting on some ignorant impulse legitimizes some kind of response from the companies moving into their local communities.
Energy 9/
Information Agency
The shale gas revolution started in North America, but it was the report by the EIA that ushered in a global push for shale and launched Poland’s unconventional gas fever.
THE ENERGY INFORMATION
Agency is a part of the U.S. Department of Energy and is tasked with producing and disseminating information covering all aspects of the energy market. Their 2011 report estimated the technically recoverable shale gas reserves for 48 basins in 32 countries. This report acted as a catalyst, pushing what was previously a North American phenomenon into a global discussion about unconventional hydrocarbons. While there was some activity happening in Poland before the report, the publication of a reserve estimate of 5.3 trillion cubic metres, enough to cover domestic demand for 300 years, kickstarted a truly national discussion on shale gas. It also heralded in a new era
of investment as companies rushed to get to the market. This estimate, however, was not based on enough information to provide an accurate assessment for Poland and the Polish Geological Institute dropped the estimate to between 346 billion and 768 billion cubic meters. The EIA continues to revise and correct their estimates relating to different nations’ shale gas potential. They are the source of much of the original content that is used by governments and media to assess the development of shale gas and have the ability to encourage and bolster support for nations seeking development in their unconventional gas industries.
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Wozniak
Piotr Wozniak is overseeing work on the new concession regime that will determine a lot of conditions for shale gas E&P in Poland. FOLLOWING THE DISMISSAL of the trea-
sury minister (ranked 25 on this list), Mr. Woźniak is currently the highest-ranking politician dealing directly with shale gas in Poland. He’s deputy minister of environment and Poland’s chief geologist who’s tasked with overseeing the concession process as well as the wholly new geology and mining law. The law, currently in the works in various ministries of the government as well as going through a public consultation process, will re-shape the concessions landscape. The new law will introduce a state-owned operator entity, known as NOKE, that the newcoming operators will be obliged to team up with on concessions. It’s a solution that the government hopes will make it easier for operators to raise equity but operators themselves seems to have nothing but serious doubts about it. “Shale gas is the state’s asset and we want it to be managed well,” Mr. Woźniak said.
Sonik
A Polish member of the European Parliament who made shale gas advocacy the leitmotif of his activity. BOGUSŁAW SONIK IS ubiquitous at shale
gas events and debates. His political views on shale gas could be summed up as follows: each EU member state has the exclusive right to decide their energy mix and the production of shale gas in the EU could be an interim step towards the decarbonized economy that the EU strives for. These may not be revolutionary views but, in Brussels, they still require a lot of work to defend in the constant battle of the numerous lobbies trying to influence the EU’s energy and environmental policies. Mr. Sonik is also active on EU fora trying to deconstruct the oft-occurring association between hydraulic fracturing and environmental hazards. This is the hard part, he says. “The strategy of shale gas opponents is to scare. It’s so easy to get people scared by saying that the drinking water will be fouled. We should be showing facts behind shale gas production,” he said.
RAFAŁ ŚWIDERSKI
11/Bogusław
SZYMON SZCZESNIAK
SZYMON SZCZESNIAK
SZYMON SZCZESNIAK
PEOPLE
10/Piotr
12/ Mark
Swift
Mark Swift is the country manager for Halliburton, one of “big four” service firms seeing opportunity in Poland’s unconventional gas basins. IN 2011, HALLIBURTON made a large com-
mitment to the Polish market, moving their Continental Europe management team to Warsaw and developing an infrastructure in the country to accommodate the emerging unconventional market. “Our primary investment is in people. Getting them trained all over the world including North America, The Middle East and Asia. We’ve invested in infrastructure and put up a base in Teresin, which is one of our key bases in Europe and will provide support across the continent,” Mr. Swift said. In addition to personnel and infrastructure Halliburton invests by spending locally and has developed relationships with 170 vendors in the country according to Mr. Swift. “Halliburton remains committed to Poland and the East European unconventional markets – we are in this for the long haul,” Mr. Swift said.
13/Oisin
Fanning If Oisin Fanning is right about Polish and European shale gas, he may well take his place among the foresighted explorers of the early 21st century.
OISIN FANNING IS PRAISED by some as a
“Celtic tiger” entrepreneur, an Irishman who knows when to take risks, and who knows what sectors promise growth. By any measure, he’s good at making a pitch, and has been successful selling his ideas to people who are well positioned to fund them. “I believe that Europe will be a new center for shale gas and tight oil that has never been seen before. There’s 70 bloody rigs in Europe, look at the shift, the change. Major companies had not been looking inward at their own countries. All of a sudden, shale gas has changed that,” Mr. Fanning told the Shale Gas Investment Guide. In the last four years, he’s amassed an enormous - some 17 million net acres, or 69,000 square kilometers - land position in Europe. In 2011, George Soros’ hedge fund took out a large position in San Leon Energy, which valued Mr. Fanning’s shares at some €23 million when the company was floated on the London’s Alternative Investment Market. At the moment, San Leon Energy is far from having its entire portfolio trading at a premium to the nominal value of the permits they own, but even if the Baltic basin takes off, a valuation in the billions should be expected.
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Miller
The man behind the company providing the incentive for Poland to start fracking.
HAVING BEEN BORN in Saint Petersburg and
served under Vladimir Putin in the Saint Petersburg Mayor’s Office, Mr. Miller rose in power to become one of key figures of the current power centers of Russian energy politics, and is now CEO of Gazprom - chief supplier of natural gas to Poland. Gazprom is one dominant catalyst behind Poland’s push for shale. For both economic and political reasons, it has become a priority to diversify the country’s energy mix away from reliance on the Russian supplier. Warsaw has always been rather clear about what it thinks Gazprom’s goals are: first to tie markets like Poland to supplies of Russian gas so that the Kremlin can apply pressure more and more easily by threatening to shut down the gas tap. And it is Mr. Miller with his hand on the tap.
Nawrocki The director of the State Geological Institute provides a needed sobriety to whatever politicians and companies are doing to hype shale gas in Poland.
AS THE CONFIDENCE in the Polish market
weakens, it’s Jerzy Nawrocki who is turning out to have been right about the Polish shale gas from the start: Polish shale was not going to be a quick and easy success. It may not even be any success at all. Mr. Nawrocki has consistently said that it will take a lot of additional drilling before any more solid estimates about the Polish shale gas reserves can be made. “I think what’s key for the entire Polish shale gas project is getting gas to flow in commercial quantities, even from a single well, so that we have some basis to consider when production could begin,” Mr. Nawrocki told the Shale Gas Investment Guide (see page 56). This notion, however, seems to be escaping the Polish government, Mr. Nawrocki also suggested, in a March 2013 interview for the Rzeczpospolita newspaper. “I understand that the treasury and the government as a whole would like to know fast how much shale gas can be produced (...) but the companies care more for effectiveness and the economics of exploration, not necessarily its pace,” he said.
SZYMON SZCZESNIAK
SZYMON SZCZESNIAK
PAP/EPA
SZYMON SZCZESNIAK
PEOPLE
14/Alexey
15/Jerzy
16/Enrique 17/ Paweł Schindelheim
If there’s anyone who can bring the shale gas industry together for two days filled with market buzz, it’s Terrapinn’s commercial director.
Poprawa
The geologist that has been patiently explaining to the general public what shales, the Rotliegend, and the Carboniferous are.
SPENDING BUDGETS of oil and gas com-
panies are tight as ever, with almost exclusive focus on activity in the field. Undeterred, Enrique Schindelheim usually finds a way to sell the shale gas conferences and events that Londonbased Terrapinn is organizing worldwide. The Argentinian’s success means not only that he’s a convincing personality (which he is) but also that such events are needed as fora to exchange views, ideas, present new technologies, find staff, and - last but not least - do business. In Poland, Mr. Schindelheim has been behind the annual Shale Gas World: Europe two-day event that this year has grown to a full-fledged trade fair considered a must to attend. Taking place in late November, the event is now broadening to cover markets like Lithuania and Ukraine as well. This shift reflects what Mr. Schindelheim seems to know: shale gas is becoming a thing to talk about beyond just Poland.
NOW WITH THE THINK TANK, Institute
of Energy Studies, Mr. Poprawa was previously a member of scientific staff at the State Geological Institute (PGI), where he patiently endured journalists’ pilgrimaging to his small room crammed with rock specimens in order to ask lay questions about Poland’s new national interest, geology. The interest in shale gas in Poland owes a great deal to Mr. Poprawa’s matter-of-fact explanations and, often, debunking common misconceptions based on ignorance. On the scientific side, Mr. Poprawa was also an important member of PGI who worked on the March 2012 report on Poland’s shale gas potential. The report cooled what was clearly unrealistic fantasies about how much shale gas there is and restored a healthy balance to the unconventionals debate in Poland.
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JAN KULCZYK TODAY is a player
on the market of conventional oil and gas, and can be seen in both Africa and Ukraine. Mr. Kulczyk’s exposure to shale gas is limited to a 4.73 percent stake in San Leon Energy. So shale isn’t exactly his primary focus just yet, but it is something he is watching. Investors, in turn, are keeping an eye on what Mr. Kulczyk is up to because of the capital he has as well as his sixth sense for business. The combination of the two could change the shale gas game once and if he chooses to engage more. He also has the kit and crew. Kulczyk Oil Ventures, which is a conventional gas E&P company in Ukraine, can carry out hydraulic fracturing and could do so for the Polish unconventional plays as well.
Kublik
The leading economics and resources reporter for Poland’s biggest quality daily newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza, has a role in shaping the public’s view on shale gas.
WORD QUICKLY SURFACED of
the well results: a meager 2 million cubic feet per day which quickly tailed off to 200,000 cubic feet per day. This set the somewhat negative tone for the Polish exploration market, even if based on only one well. Mr. Parmar was promoted last year, to replace Peter Clutterbuck. In March 2013, Mr. Parmar bought into the company with stock, which is trading at just 10 percent of its mid 2011 peak. Although Mr. Parmar exercised more influence over Polish shale when his company was operator over their Baltic concessions (now operated by ConocoPhillips), he’s still making a difference by participating in outreach events, having won the confidence of local communities. With a likable demeanor and a candor that has won him the trust of longtime business partners, Mr. Parmar is optimistic about the future of Polish shale, despite the difficulties.
GAZ SYSTEM
QUADRILLA RESOURCES
SZYMON SZCZESNIAK
A minor player in shale gas right now, Jan Kulczyk is keeping his options open via a stake in San Leon Energy and declared interested in unconventionals.
The former country manager and current CEO of 3 Legs Resources, presided over the first horizontal well drilled in Poland, Łebien LE-2H.
SZYMON SZCZESNIAK
SZYMON SZCZESNIAK
PAP/MACIEJ KULCZYŃSKI
Parmar Kulczyk
21/Jan
Chadam 22/Francis Egan If shale gas is ever found in Poland, the subsequent transformation of the Polish energy mix will largely depend on how effective the gas transmission system will be.
might be waning, but it is not dead yet and Andrzej Kublik’s reporting on the development of the shale gas market still is what many executives are reading in the morning. Mr. Kublik, as pretty much everyone at the time, jumped on the bandwagon of the early enthusiasm about shale gas in Poland but he has tempered the tone of his reporting somewhat since. He says that at this moment in time, the keys to unlocking Poland’s shale potential (“If there is any,” he added) remain wholly with the government. “There’s not much in it at the moment and the market won’t progress until the Polish government has solved several complex problems, the new geology law and taxation of shale gas operations in the first place,” Mr. Kublik told the Shale Gas Investment Guide.
SYSTEM, the operator of the gas transmission network in Poland. The company will have to carry out several investment projects in order for the Polish network to be technically capable of handling gas from shales. But, these investments will be needed even if shale gas ultimately fails to be produced in production volumes Poland. Between 2014 and 2018, it is planned for the majority of the 1,000 kilometers of new transmission pipelines to be completed, at a total cost of approximately PLN 5 billion (USD 1.6 billion). Gaz-System is also looking into building infrastructure to connect with neighboring countries, Slovakia and the Czech Republic in particular. With all of this investment into infrastructure, when Poland sees the shift from exploration to production of unconventional gas, Mr. Chadam is sure to be a name to know.
23/Nick
Grealy
The London blogger and others like him are sustaining As the Polish shale gas effort much of the buzz around slows, Poland-based operators unconventionals through will be looking to how the CEO rapid updates and increased of Cuadrilla Resources is faring dialogue. in the UK.
JAN CHADAM is the CEO of GAZ-
THE IMPACT OF print media
PEOPLE
18/Jan
19/Kamlesh 20/Andrzej
FRANCIS EGAN HEADS Cuadrilla
Resources, a UK company operating in the Bowland Basin in Lancashire, the scene of likely the richest shale gas play in the UK. He staved off a public relations crisis after Cuadrilla reported minor tremors on a location where it drilled and fracked by instituting control system, and coming out to the public on details of the operations. The UK government has since lifted its ban on fracking and, as new, more optimistic estimates put the UK shale gas reserves at some 1,300-1,700 trillion cubic feet, it may be Cuadrilla in the UK, not any of the Polish operators, that will be the first to start commercial production. During the Unconventional Oil and Gas Summit this June, Mr. Egan is likely to be sought after by a lot of people.
OVER THE LAST FIVE years, Nick Grealy, a blogger, has stayed positive and upbeat about the benefits of shale gas, in a Europe whose citizens are still skeptical of its environmental impact. The BBC, Bloomberg, Sky News, and Financial Times have cited Mr. Grealy’s analyses, published at www.nohotair. co.uk. He appeared before the UK parliament’s energy and climate change committee in 2011 to express his support for exploration. Mr. Grealy calls himself a consultant on “above the ground issues,” choosing to focus on the environmental impact and public acceptance. “It’s not worth any money if gas stays in the ground, and a lot of the reason it stays in the ground is public acceptance. The industry hasn’t been proactive enough in pushing the benefits,” Mr. Grealy.
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BIO NAME: Izabela Kawczynski POSITION: Your HR Partner BIRTH DATE: March 6, 1978 BIRTHPLACE: Chicago, IL CURRENT CITY: Warsaw, Poland HEIGHT: 5' 4" (5' 7" in heels) WEIGHT: 125 lbs TURN-ONS: positivity, muscle cars and making people smile TURN-OFFS: freezing rain and whining FAVORITE MOVIES: all the Alien movies (I'm a huge fan of sci-fi) I DREAM OF: world peace FAVORITE INTERVIEW QUESTION TO ASK A POTENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you were me, what question would you ask yourself? FAVORITE QUOTE: "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." -Wayne Gretzky THREE WORDS THAT BEST DESCRIBE ME: but first, coffee ;)
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PEOPLE
2. John Buggenhagen
3. Donald Tusk
4. Wiesław Prugar
5. Janez Potocnik
6. Laurie St. Aubin
7. Włodzimierz Karpinski
8. Objector
9. EIA
10. Piotr Wozniak
11. Bogusław Sonik
12. Mark Swift
13. Oisin Flanning
14. Alexey Miller
15. Jerzy Nawrocki
16. Enrique Schindelheim
17. Paweł Poprawa
18. Jan Kulczyk
19. Kamlesh Parmar
20. Andrzej Kublik
21. Jan Chadam
22. Francis Egan
23. Nick Grealy
25. Grazyna Oliwa-Piotrowska
25. Mikołaj Budzanowski
PGNIG
PAP
1. George Soros
24/Grazyna
PiotrowskaOliwa The high heeled former CEO of PGNiG misstepped, snagging her gown on a red carpet laid out by Putin. UNTIL SHE WAS FIRED in April,
Ms. Grażyna Piotrowska-Oliwa (see profile, page 24) was the centerpiece of the government’s plan to produce gas from shales. She’s friends with the former treasury minister Mikołaj Budzanowski, now just behind her at the bottom of this list. She brought a measure of glamour and sophistication to the oilfield. But it wasn’t to last. The news of a feasibility study for a new Yamal pipeline (see page 27) cost her one of the top executive positions in Poland. Although this mishap will prove a minor footnote in the long run, the mistake was enough to get the classically trained and ambitious lady relegated to the ranks of executives who didn’t see through the political implications of the energy sector in Poland.
25/Mikołaj
Budzanowski
Formerly a top political figure in the context of shale gas in Poland, former Treasury Minister Mikołaj Budzanowski was dismissed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk in early April. MIKOŁAJ BUDZANOWSKI shaped
the Polish shale gas sector a great deal during his 18 month tenure. Mr. Budzanowski pushed for stateowned energy companies to earmark some PLN 10 billion (USD 3.2 billion) for shale gas exploration, and shale subsequently made its way into the strategies of utility companies planning gas-fired power plants and chemical companies using gas to produce fertilizers. In early April, just days before Mr. Tusk - now number 3 in this list - dismissed him (see page 27), Mr. Budzanowski assured that production of gas from shales would be “absolutely possible” in 2015. As long as Polish Oil and Gas Company (PGNiG) ups the tempo of exploration, he added. With the dismissal of both Mr. Budzanowski and PGNiG’s CEO Grażyna Piotrowska-Oliwa (see profile page 24), expect some change to occur across the Polish side of the industry.
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