Polish PM: Draft Shale Gas Regulations Ready
The Polish government has worked out a compromise on shale gas regulatory framework.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced that draft regulations are ready for a formal approval.
Tusk explained that months of discussions were needed to strike a balance between openness to foreign investment and securing state control.
“After long months of discussion the participants were trying to strike a balance between two important needs: not discouraging investors and securing state control over the process of gas extracting and the redistribution of profits,” the PM said during a press conference.
“We had to accommodate those two needs in the draft bill,” Tusk continued, adding that numerous representatives of government agendas took part in the proceedings.
“The assumptions are ready. We will be approving this draft at the government's sitting next week".
The PM repeated that the deputy environment minister Piotr Wozniak would remain responsible for the draft legislation. Wozniak said recently that Poland wanted the law to go into force next year.
According to the deputy minister, the legislation would establish a state agency NOKE (Narodowy Operator Kopalin Energetycznych) which would invest in shale gas projects and hold a share in concessions to “strengthen the administrative oversight of proper execution of license obligations and a safe secondary market of licenses.”
The legal framework has been long awaited by the industry, was has continued costly exploration despite the high degree of uncertainty around future tax burden levels.
The previous version of the draft, which was initially to be announced on 13th of June, proposed creating the special fund “Fundusz Weglowodorowy” that would reinvest a portion of tax proceeds to support education, science R&D and spending, as well as establishing new taxes with increased share of revenues paid to regional coffers.
While majority of media in Poland reported on continuing internal conflict in the government, last month Natural Gas Europe was one of the few to signal that ministers working on new regulations for natural gas in Poland might be close to reaching a compromise position.
The draft regulations require passage by parliament and approved by the President.