In her speech to delegates at Shale Gas World Europe 2011, Malgorzata Maria Klawiter, Chief Specialist for Unconventional Resources, Department of Economic Development at the Office of the Marshall of the Pomorskie Voivoideship in Poland showed a slide of a protest against shale gas in her region of Poland.

“People protest against everything because they don’t know,” she explained. “It’s hard to predict how the discussion would be accepted by the citizens; sometimes they are afraid of something that’s new; many times it’s not the locals but people with the cottage houses who don’t live there but come there very often – they don’t want to be bothered by heavy trucks on their lands.”

Ms. Klawiter said that she engaged an environmental NGO at protests, suggesting they should consider the benefits, but they said she had been bought by the industry.

“The protesters were against pollution,” she recalled. “They were throwing around sentences, saying something was stated in the law that’s not. They said they don’t want to be educated, because it meant the industry wanted to impose its opinion upon them.”

Regional authorities, she said, needed to be involved in the dialogue, but sometimes they did not bear the knowledge to be able to do that.

She explained, “Regional self government is not the actor involved in granting concessions, but we can influence communities, authorities, and the local government, so we are in a good place to be an integrator for all the actions occurring.”

She said that Pomorskie Region, where she was an official, was in the northwest of Poland with a population of about 2 million, and that the primarily agricultural area had never experienced any gas-related activity.

“The region is more like the integrating part,” she explained of its role among Poland’s administrative units. “It’s not that we have the power over others. We are consulting on strategy, evaluating potential and setting targets.”

She said that there was a problem with social dialogue regarding shale gas exploration, as it was something “perfectly new” in Poland. Ms. Klawiter said, “The concession areas are huge and this is the very beginning. There are like 10 well bores, so the influence exploration will have is hard to predict.”

“Many companies predict a huge amount of shale gas there, up to 5 TCM,” she reported of her region.

Showing a map of the Pomorskie region, she said that 85% of the region was covered with concessions. Ms. Klawiter showed a list of concessionaires and said that ownership changed very quickly. According to her, the three biggest were 3Legs Resources, PGNiG and BNK Petroleum.

Again, in regards to public acceptance issues, she said talking to everyone was her advice to the delegates in attendance.

“Polish law says you need to discuss with local communities and seek their acceptance,” said Klawiter. “If they know too late they might be scared enough not to talk to anyone.

“It’s our responsibility, not only the company’s,” she continued of informing the public of E&P activities. “If you start the dialogue, involve local authorities as well as the regional authorities in how to target this specific community. One could be pro, the other against.”

She reported that the Pomorskie Voivodeship planned on initiating a public dialogue entitled “Energy and Self Governance.” “At the end of the discussion the whole thing is written down so that participants can reevaluate and contact the persons involved,” said Klawiter, who offered more details.

“We want to give an opportunity to companies to make a space for dialogue. We would invite experts, allow questions to be asked, meet companies and authorities. When they all have knowledge and dialogue, they can work on a compromise.”

Source: Natural Gas for Europe