Central European Petroleum (CEP), the Polish branch of the Canadian-founded energy company, has announced Poland’s largest oil and gas find to date near Świnoujście, a discovery that could significantly boost domestic production and reduce the country’s heavy dependence on imports.
The discovery was made at the Wolin East 1 exploration well, located just six kilometers off the Baltic Sea coast. According to a statement released Monday by CEP, the broader Wolin concession area could contain over 33 million tons of oil and 27 billion cubic meters of market-grade natural gas.
“This is the largest conventional hydrocarbon discovery ever made in Poland and one of the biggest conventional oil finds in Europe in the past decade,” said CEP CEO Rolf Skaar. In an interview with the Polish Press Agency (PAP), Skaar noted that the confirmed reserves could rival or even surpass those of the Barnówko-Mostno-Buszewo (BMB) field, previously Poland’s largest.
“The BMB field holds around 400 to 500 million barrels of oil, with an estimated recovery of about 100 million barrels. We are looking at a deposit of a similar scale — if not larger,” he said.
Currently, Poland imports approximately 95% of its crude oil. CEP estimates that the new Wolin field could more than double the nation’s oil production and increase natural gas output by 20%.
CEP is collaborating with US-based Noble Corporation on the drilling operations and is actively seeking Polish and international partners to assist in developing the site.
“This represents a huge opportunity for the national energy sector,” said Dariusz Joński, Member of the European Parliament from the ruling Civic Coalition, who highlighted the scale of the reserves on social media platform X, stating the oil deposits are “equivalent to 20 times Poland’s annual production,” while the gas reserves are “five times that amount.”
Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski also welcomed the discovery, drawing comparisons to recent national achievements such as Iga Świątek’s Wimbledon triumph and Poland’s latest space mission. “Apparently, God really does love our government,” he quipped on X.
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