Over the next seven years, state-owned gas firm PGNiG should increase production of natural gas to a volume well above 8 billion cubic meters annually, Treasury Minister Mikołaj Budzanowski said on Wednesday in the Sejm, Parkiet reported.

Given last year’s production level of 4.3 billion cubic meters, the Polish natural gas giant is looking at doubling that number by 2019.

That year is when PGNiG is due to start renegotiating its long-term gas supply contract with Russia's Gazprom.

The ambitious new plan would be carried out thanks to intensified search efforts with the help of new partners.

The group also plans to invest zł.1.1 billion this year in searching for and producing hydrocarbons to boost volumes to 6.2 billion cubic meters annually in the next three years.

Poland A.M.