WARSAW -- The Polish government today decided to make it tax-free to extract shale gas at home through 2020, as the EU member strives to ensure energy independence from Russia.
Poland's shale gas reserves are estimated at between 800 to 2,000 billion cubic meters, and many local and foreign companies have already sunk test wells.
"We adopted measures that should encourage shale gas exploration," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters today.
He added that after 2020, taxes "shouldn't exceed 40% of extraction income."
Local and global companies have thus far sunk around 50 exploratory wells in Poland. The firm Lane Energy Poland -- controlled by U.S. energy giant ConocoPhillips (IW 500/21) -- was the first to extract shale gas in July 2013. The amount was not big enough however to qualify as commercial production.
U.S. energy giant Chevron (IW 500/2) announced late last year that it had joined forces with Poland's PGNiG on shale gas exploration in the country's south.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2014
