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Petrom and Exxon speed up Black Sea exploration and conclude an additional act with ANRM
The National Agency for Mineral Resources (ANRM) concluded an additional act to the agreement with OMV Petrom and ExxonMobil for the Neptun Block in the Black Sea, in order to speed up the exploration work, Gheorghe Dutu, President of ANRM, told AGERPRES.
'The government has approved this additional act in the latest meeting (on July 30 - editor's note). The additional act was concluded at the request of those at Petrom ', said Dutu.
According to him, the additional act, the third since the signing of the agreement, is classified in conformity with the law, since it stipulates the program of works the investors will make in this area.
'By signing this additional act, the whole process is accelerated. They (Petrom and ExxonMobil - editor's note) need to obtain additional values and concrete data from the entire block. They plan to perform some 1-2 more drilling in the next period. So it is not about extending a deadline, but, on the contrary, works are speeded up', Dutu stressed.
In 2008, OMV Petrom and Americans from ExxonMobil concluded a partnership to explore the Neptun block in the Black Sea.
The Domino 1 well, dug by the two companies last year, indicated potential reserves of natural gas of between 42 and 84 billion cubic meters. Romania's gas consumption is 13-14 billion cubic meters per year, so that the deposits there could cover the needs of the country for six years.
Last fall, Mariana Gheorghe, CEO of Petrom, said the extraction of gas from this area could begin in 2018.
At the same time, ExxonMobil representatives stated that, after the deposit is to be declared with commercial value, the gas extraction phase will involve investments of between 3 and 10 billion dollars.