31-07-08 Polish state-owned natural gas company, PGNiG, said it had given the go ahead for a Polish-Italian-Candian consortium to develop the country's largest documented oil and gas fields.
The Lubiatowa-Miedzychodu-Grotowa (LMG) deposit in western Poland contains documented reserves of 7.25 mm tons of crude oil and 5.5 bn cm of natural gas. The bid by the consortium of Poland's PBG, Italy's Technip KTI and Canada's Thermo Design Engineering was selected in June.

"The supervisory board's decision gives the green light to sign the contract with the consortium and start the largest production investment in the Polish market, which will increase the country's oil and gas production," PGNiG said.
"The project is not only a part of the strategy to boost the country's energy security, it's also an important step towards increasing PGNiG's market value," the company said.

The consortium's tender offered to complete the contract for Zloty 1.397 bn (EUR 473 mm) over a period of 56 months. PGNiG said it would fund half of the investment costs itself and raise credit for the remainder.
The project calls for the drilling of 14 wells, 7 in Lubiatow, 3 in Miedzychod and 4 in Grotow, as well as the construction of the pipeline transmission infrastructure. PGNiG plans production of 0.9 mm tons of crude oil from the LMG block by 2013.