France's Total dumps shale gas exploration in Poland
French Total decided against renewing its license in Poland and will cease its operations in Poland when it comes to shale gas exploration, representative from Polish environment ministry confirmed to the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
Total held a license in Chełm in northern-eastern Poland. “There wasn’t much there,” an anonymous source told PAP adding that Total wasn’t very active in exploring the license. “They’ve used the site as a piece of real estate, something they could show their investors to prove they have a Polish license, not to actually look for shale gas,” the source added.
Polish law regarding shale gas exploration has been recently altered, so that companies who hold licenses but don’t conduct any work on them have to pay fines. “Holding licenses just for the purpose of having them and boasting about them, but not doing anything there, simply has become unprofitable,” PAP writes quoting its source.
