The subject of the paper is the analysis of factors determining the value of multi-entity organizations in the energy sector and their ranking according to the degree of impact on this value. For this purpose, statistical methods were used, which are best suited to determine the order of diagnostic features according to a specific criterion. The survey covered companies from the Polish energy sector, while the process itself is based on aggregated data, which represents the financial data of capital groups currently operating in the Polish energy sector.

The first part of the article presents a short description of the Polish energy sector, paying particular attention to the organizational structure of the sector, i.e. companies operating on the domestic energy market. The nature of a multi-entity enterprise as a typical economic unit in the sector is described. The second part of the article describes the assumptions of multidimensional comparative analysis (MCA) as a tool for comparing multifunctional units. The MCA makes it possible to find the most important parameters or indicators having the greatest impact on the value of a multi-entity organization, i.e. a capital group. The survey covered four companies from the Polish energy sector: TAURON Polska Energia SA, ENEA SA, ENERGA SA and PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna SA.

The study with the use of MCA was conducted in three stages:

- in the first stage, on the basis of information contained in the financial statements, a matrix of diagnostic features was created, describing the financial condition of the examined entity,

- in the second stage, the values of diagnostic variables were normalized/unified; two methods of normalization were applied: the method of standardization and zero unitization,

- in the third stage, the diagnostic variables were grouped using two methods: the model measure of Hellwig’s development and the non-standard measure of development.

The results of the analysis are illustrated by tables and figures.

In the last decade, Poland has become one of the most active markets for unconventional hydrocarbon deposits exploration. At present, there are twenty concessions for the exploration and/or discovery of reserves, including shale gas. The area covered by exploration concessions constitutes ca. 7.5% of the country’s area. Four main stages can be distinguished In the shale gas development and exploitation project: the selection and preparation of the place of development of the wells, hydraulic drilling and fracturing, exploitation (production) and marketing, exploitation suppression and land reclamation. In the paper, the concept of cost analysis of an investment project related to the exploration and development of a shale gas field/area was presented. The first two stages related to the preparatory work, carried out on the selected site, as well as drilling and hydraulic fracturing were analyzed. For economic reasons, the only rational way to make shale gas reserves available is to use horizontal drilling, either singly or in groups. The number of drilling pads covering the concession area is a fundamental determinant of the development cost of the deposit. In the paper, the results of the cost analysis of various types of reaming method with an area of 25,000,000 m2 were presented. Cost estimates were prepared for two variants: group drilling for three types of drilling pads: with three, five and seven wells and for single wells. The results show that, as the number of horizontal wells increases, the total cost of the development of the deposit is reduced. For tree-wells pad, these costs are 7% lower than in the second variant, for five-well pads they are 11% lower, and for seven-well pads they are 11.5% smaller than in the second variant. Authors, using applied methodology, indicate the direction of further research that will enable the optimization of shale gas drilling operations.