Up to $40 million worth of oil ready for extraction

Stanisław Radecki, director of the Deposits Department of Polish Oil and Gas (PGNiG), announced yesterday that oil deposits under the Puszcza Notecka forest are worth between $100 and $150 million, from which it will be possible to extract 25%. According to Radecki, preliminary examinations have shown that the oil meets all necessary parameters and its extraction would be profitable. Thanks to the new depositS, oil extraction will increase from 0.5 million tones to 2 million tones annually, which will meet over 10% of the country's oil demands. Radecki thinks that more money will stay in the country and that the first drilling should commence in 2005, after the necessary geological research has been conducted, the necessary permits have been granted, and the infrastructure created. According to PGNiG's preliminary research, construction of the infrastructure should cost between zł. 80 and zł. 100 million. (www.onet.pl) M.M