In the years 2012-2015, the General Director for Environmental Protection, on behalf of the Minister of the Environment, implemented the task: Evaluation of environmental risks posed by the process of exploring, identifying and extracting unconventional hydrocarbon deposits. The need to implement the task resulted from a need to provide the information necessary for effective management, control and supervision of the stages of: exploring, identifying and extracting unconventional hydrocarbon deposits in Poland, in particular, so-called shale gas. The project was financed from the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management resources.

As a result of the implementation of the project, the papers were drawn up containing, inter alia:

• the results of field environmental studies, enabling the evaluation of the actual impact of projects regarding identifying gas in shale rocks on the environment and on the health and life of the population;
• review of the legal and administrative requirements governing the activities related to exploring and identifying unconventional natural gas deposits and to extracting natural gas from unconventional deposits;
• good practices for the environmental protection in performing work related to exploring, identifying and extracting gas from shale rocks.

The results and conclusions developed as part of the task are dedicated to the central- and regional-level institutions, involved in this process.

In order to present the results of environmental studies, in March 2015 the expert conference entitled: Shale gas: safety and responsibility – the results of the research project was organised.

The implementation of the tasks in the project involved both scientific institutes (Polish Geological Institute – National Research Institute, Central Mining Institute in Katowice), universities (Gdańsk University of Technology, AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków), law firms (K&L Gates), consulting firms (SEGA-AT Sp. z o.o., Deloitte Advisory Sp. z o.o.), as well as Polish and foreign investors.                                                                                    

Conference: "Shale gas: safety and responsibility – the results of the research project"

GDEP publications and reports

The project Evaluation of environmental risks posed by the process of exploring, identifying and extracting unconventional hydrocarbon deposits is financed from the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management resources.