Triple the costs: Poland shale drilling more expensive than in US

Shale-gas drilling in Poland costs almost three times as much as in the US, according to a Schlumberger official.

The cost of drilling a 2000-metre (6562-foot) horizontal well in the US averages $3.9 million compared with $11 million in Poland, said Peter Richter, global unconventional technology and marketing manager at Schlumberger, according to a Bloomberg report.

Richter was speaking this week at the Shale Gas World Europe 2011 conference in Warsaw.

Shale gas has boosted US production and damped prices. Companies including ExxonMobil and Chevron seek to emulate the US boom in Poland, Europe’s biggest holder of the unconventional gas.

The eastern European country will take longer to develop its resources than the US, partly because of a lack of pipeline infrastructure, time needed to gain expertise and the necessity to address public concerns, Richter said.

“We can’t do things here the way we did them in US, where 30,000 wells will be drilled this year,” Bloomberg reported him as saying. “In Europe it won’t be possible due to population density.”

Poland has granted more than 100 licenses, with 11 wells completed out of a mandatory 124. Some have been as deep as 3600 meters.