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 POLAND
Eastern Europe
Poland is the only country in the world whose oil output
peaked prior to 1930. The Bobrka field was discovered in 1854 in the
Carpathians by the inventor of the kerosene lamp and production began
from Oligocene sandstones a few years later.
 It
was the discovery of the Boryslaw field in 1893 that revolutionised the
industry. Boryslaw produced 268 mm Bbls to 1945 and in 1909 was largely
responsible for a Polish production peak of 41,000 Bbls per day.
From 1909 to WW2 production declined and, despite intense
exploration activity, only small accumulations were discovered. Boryslaw
and other largely depleted fields were lost to Poland in 1945 when the
Galicia producing region in Carpathia was transferred to the Soviet
Union.
From 1945 to the mid-1960s the industry slowly recovered
but never reached pre-war levels. After much investment the country
reached a second peak in 1975 at around 11,000 Bbls per day. A third
peak is being reached in the early years of the 21st century as
workovers improve output onshore and new offshore developments in the
Baltic Sea are brought onstream.
 In early 2003 Polish oil and gas company (PGNiG)
discovered two fields (Grotow and Lubiatow) in western Poland. Size is
uncertain although they could be large, possibly allowing Poland to
eventually increase output to levels obtained in 1909.
For a brief period in the 1970s Poland was producing over
6 Bcm of gas per year but output has rapidly declined. The opening up of
Poland to foreign investors led to an increase in production after 1990.
There are relatively few unexplored areas of the country but these may
yield some additional gas reserves.
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