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ANRM: 6-7 billion dollars should be invested in Black Sea gas reserves
The Black Sea can become a small North Sea, since it has has reserves of over 200 billion cubic meters, but investments of 6-7 billion dollars for their extraction, said Sorin Gal, general manager of the National Agency for Mineral Resources (ANRM) on Thursday.
He participated in the Natural Gas Forum, organized online by Financial Intelligence.
According to him, investments made until now in the Black Sea are about 3.5 billion dollars, only in exploitation.
“In order to exploit these resources and reach a peak of over 10 billion cu.m. (per year) at least 6-7 billion dollars are needed, and not anyone can invest and exploit these gases,” he continued.
In his opinion, discoveries made in the Romanian Black Sea could rival with those recently announced by the Turks.“There are two big players in the Black Sea, Lukoil-Romgaz and Exxon-Petrom, both reaching discoveries which could rival with the discovery politically announced by our neighbors, the Turks. Therefore the Black seems to become a small North Sea, but serious investments must be made,”the ANRM official showed.
The key for making these investments work is low taxes, Gal continued.
“Investors must have a two-figure profit, nobody will invest unless there is a two figure profit. Taxes are very important. If they are overtaxed, we will have expensive gas, there will not be competitive and the price of gas will grow in Romanian market, as most reserves are depleted, with high costs and production dropped in the pandemic context more than the natural decline we foresee annually. This investment reduction in upstream , where the number of oils drilled dropped by 75%, will lead to decline in the years to come,with impact on the gas market,” the representative of the Mineral Resource Agency said.
He also added that in the second half of next year he expects the beginning of production in the two offshore reserves, Ana and Doina, of Black Sea Oil and Gas company, that is about a billion cubic meters per year.