Poland’s State Gas and Oil company (PGNiG) has announced that it is to invest 70 million dollars prospecting in northern Africa, next year.

The company is hopeful of locating oil deposits in Egypt and natural gas in Libya.

An initial gravimetric assessment has been made in Egypt already this month and if the gathered data confirms the economic feasibility of the project, drilling may be completed in 2015 and regular exploitation of the source may commence.

PGNiG’s licensing agreement with the Egyptian government speaks of an 18 per cent company share on condition extraction reaches the level of at least 500 thousand tons of crude oil annually. Estimates speak of some 22 million ton deposits in the Bahariya region covered by the agreement.

In Libya, the speculated gas deposits may total up to 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas over an area of 5 and a half thousand square kilometres in the Murzug region.

PGNiG has planned the first four prospecting drilling sites there next year.

(Source: thenews.pl)