Senior Polish Officials in the United States for Shale Gas Consultations

28 March 2011

A delegation of senior Polish Government officials and academic experts is visiting Washington, DC, and Morgantown, West Virginia, March 28 and 29 to learn more about shale gas exploration, production, and regulation in the United States.  Undersecretaries from the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will meet with senior U.S. Government officials and experts under the framework of the Global Shale Gas Initiative (GSGI).  GSGI is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State that aims to help countries seeking to utilize their unconventional natural gas resources to identify and develop them safely and economically.  The launch of GSGI in April 2010 was followed by an international conference on August 23-24, 2010, in which a delegation of senior Polish officials participated.  Poland is one of four countries (China, India, and Jordan are the others) with which the U.S. has established partnerships under GSGI.

Ambassador Feinstein welcomed the visit, saying: “The visit of this distinguished group of policymakers to the United States exemplifies the growing importance of U.S.-Polish cooperation on energy, and will advance our common goal of developing a cleaner, more secure source of energy from Poland’s shale resources.”