The total value of the three projects executed in the area covered by PGNiG SA's Zielona Góra Branch (all three to be officially launched on October 12th 2010), is approximately PLN 500m.

"The timely completion of the Wielichowo Mine and the Bonikowo Underground Gas Storage Facility proves that PGNiG SA has been consistently executing its strategic tasks designed to increase Poland's domestic gas production and the capacity of underground gas storage facilities," says Michał Szubski, President of the Management Board of PGNiG SA.

The increased gas production and the larger capacity of the gas storage facilities will contribute to strengthening Poland's energy security and support PGNiG's flexibility in responding to any disruptions in natural gas supplies. 

About PLN 200m were expensed on the construction of the Wielichowo Mine, commenced in June 2009. The mine will produce gas from the Wielichowo-Ruchocice field, and the gas will be fed to the processing units of the Nitrogen Removal Facility in Grodzisk. The production frm the Wielichowo-Ruchocice fields, with the Elżbieciny, Jabłonna and Łęki wells connected to the mine, will be performed in the collector system comprising ten wells. The system supports phased execution of the project, where five new wells can be connected to the system hub without any interruption to the hub's operations. The hub is the mine's main unit where gas collected from multiple wells is prepared for transmission to the nitrogen removal facility. Thus new wells can be connected to the system without the need to extend the hub.

Total recoverable reserves of the Wielichowo, Ruchocice, Łęki, Elżbieciny and Jabłonna fields are estimated at over 3.5bn cubic metres of nitrogen-rich gas. The production volumes for individual fields will depend on various factors, including intake capacities of the gas transmission system and the Nitrogen Removal Facility in Grodzisk.

The Nitrogen Removal Facility in Grodzisk is the most state-of-the-art facility in the Polish gas production sector. The facility has been constructed to enable gas production from large reserves of nitrogen-rich gas in the Grodzisk Wielkopolski, Babimost and Międzychód area, including both the fields discovered in the 1980s and those developed in recent years. The cost of the Nitrogen Removal Facility in Grodzisk totalled only approximately over PLN 120m.

The cost of construction of the Bonikowo Underground Gas Storage Facility, commenced in April 2009, amounted to approximately PLN 170m. The Bonikowo facility is located in the Kościan and Grodzisk Wielkopolski regions of the Poznań Province. It is constructed based on the partially depleted natural gas deposit in Bonikowo. It's operational capacity amounts to 200 mln cubic mteres. The maximum gas injection capacity of the Bonikowo facility will be 1.68m cubic metres per day and 70 thousand cubic meters per hour. The maximum gas withdrawal capacity of the Bonikowo facility will be 2.40m cubic metres per day and 100 thousand cubic meters per hour.

The facility will stabilise the operation of the nitrogen-rich gas system and help improve managing the production capacities of the neighbouring fields. Nitrogen-rich gas will be fed to the Bonikowo facility from two sources: the Kościan distribution node and the Krobia-Grodzisk transmission gas pipeline. The gas injection and withdrawal cycle at the facility will be handled by two wells: Bonikowo-1 and Bonikowo 3H.

The year 2010 ranks among those seeing the most intensive investments in the upstream sector in PGNiG SA's history. The Company's total capital expenditure on exploration, production, construction and extension of the underground gas storage facilities and other projects is planned to reach around PLN 4bn in 2010.

In line with PGNiG's Strategy until 2015, adopted two years ago, the annual gas production from domestic fields will amount to approximately 4.5bn cubic metres in the next few years, while the aggregate capacity of the underground gas storage facilities will increase from the current 1.6bn cubic metres to over 3bn cubic metres.

Joanna Zakrzewska

Spokesperson