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.

This work presents the methodology for analyzing the impact of ground vibrations induced during the drilling of gas/oil exploration wells on the surrounding constructions, as well as on humans and the natural environment. In the primary stage, this methodology is based on measurements of ground vibrations induced by a specific type of drilling system in the so-called reference site. In the next stage, ground vibrations are estimated in similar conditions to another design site, these conditions are assumed for a given drilling system, treated as a vibration source. In both sites, special seismic and geotechnical data are collected to construct numerical models for dynamic analyses. Finally, if it is required, a protection system is proposed with respect to the drilling technology and local conditions. The methodology presented has been tested on the terrain of an active natural gas mine used as the design site, and located in the southeastern part of Poland. The reference site was placed in the terrain of a working drilling system in similar conditions in the central part of Poland. Based on the results of numerical simulations, one may verify the different locations of the drilling rig in the design site with respect to the existing industrial structure. Due to the hazard from destructive ground vibrations, a certain vibroisolation system was proposed at the design site. Based on the results of numerical simulations one could rearrange the components of the drilling system in order to provide maximum security for the surrounding structures.

Operations conducted by petroleum industry generate an entire range of drilling waste. The chemical composition of drilling waste and its toxicity depend primarily on the geological and technological conditions of drilling, the type of drilled rock deposits and on the type and composition of the drilling mud used. In the course of drilling operations, drilling fluids are in constant contact with bacteria, fungi and other organisms infecting the mud. Pioneer species, capable of surviving and using the resources of this specific environment, are selected. For this reason, the effectiveness of microbiota survival on different types of spent drilling muds and in different dilutions with brown soil was measured. Spent drilling muds samples came from drilling operations in various regions of Poland, e.g. Subcarpathia, the Polish Lowland and Pomerania regions. Oxygen consumption after 96 h was around 20 μg·g^‒1 dry mass in soil or soil/drilling water-based mud mixture. Soil mixes contained 10 wt% synthetic base, mud had a higher oxygen consumption – 38 μg · g^‒1 dry mass. Oxygen consumption decreases sharply as the content of the spent synthetic base mud fraction increases. A higher concentration of spent SBM (35 wt%) reduced the aerobic metabolism by slightly more than 50%. A high concentration of reduced carbon decreased the respiratory quotient (RQ) value to 0.7. All the researched drilling waste shows microbiological activity. At the full concentration of drilling fluids and non-dilution options, the chemical composition (salinity, inhibitors, etc.) strongly inhibits microbiota development and consequently, respiration