The new well was put into production on November 11 and will start with a production of 600 barrels per day.Continue reading
Hungarian oil and gas company MOL has drilled three successful shallow gas wells in eastern Hungary in the past two months, resulting in the discovery of natural gas, the company announced on Monday. The amount found could meet the gas needs of up to 20,000 average family homes for a few years, which is definitely good news in the current times of uncertainty and energy crisis.
The Hungarian company launched the shallow gas program in 2019, targeting gas fields closer to the surface, typically small ones. In recent years, 16 out of 18 well drills have been successful, and shallow gas accounts for roughly 5 percent of MOL’s annual gas production of 1.4 billion cubic meters in Hungary. The gas fields targeted by drilling are generally located between 1,500 and 2,000 meters.
It is also important to note that Hungary sits above a huge gas field of around 1,600 billion cubic meters, which in theory could supply the country for even a century. However, most of this amount is “unconventional gas,” meaning that it is very difficult to access because it is thousands of meters deep and extraction would require technology that would not be economically viable.
Hungary currently has a well-developed gas pipeline infrastructure, which allows for the production of the discovered material in a short time (5-6 months on average), and the delivery of the produced gas to the population and industrial consumers.
The shallow gas wells that have been put into production so far have been able to supply the natural gas needs of about 30-40,000 average households, and with the new wells this number will soon reach 50,000.
The three new wells could contribute up to 750 barrels of gas equivalent per day to maintain MOL’s gas and oil production in Hungary at around 32,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, which is equivalent to around 44 million cubic meters of gas per year.
The shallow gas wells in Eastern Hungary will make a major contribution to compensating for the natural decline in production from the depleting fields,
said Ádám Homonnay, Director of Exploration and Production at MOL Hungary.
MOL’s plan is to invest around HUF 200 billion (EUR 526.4 million) in oil and gas mining in Hungary over the next five years. Almost 60-65 percent of this will be for natural gas, 20-25 percent for oil, and the rest for the safe maintenance and replacement of infrastructure.
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