Petrom launched a new offshore drilling campaign in the Black Sea

By Jerom Bolt
OMV Petrom, the largest energy company in Southeast Europe, has launched a new offshore drilling campaign in shallow waters in the Black Sea, on the Istria perimeter, the company announced on Monday.
The first drilling operations started at the end of December 2020, and at the beginning of this year, the drilling of the second well will start. The investment for this campaign is about 32 million euros.
“OMV Petrom has had an active presence in the Black Sea for over four decades and, during this period, OMV Petrom has demonstrated its important role in the economic development of Romania. Using modern technical solutions, we seek in this way “Unlocking additional resources that can compensate for the decline in domestic production from mature fields. The Black Sea is of strategic importance for Romania’s gas production: currently, about 10% of the country’s annual gas consumption comes from this area,” said Chris Veit , member of the Management Board of OMV Petrom, responsible for the Upstream activity.
The two development wells are drilled to depths of over 2,500 meters, in waters with a depth of about 60 meters.
According to the quoted source, this drilling campaign completes the series of investment projects for offshore production in the shallow waters of the Black Sea: over 500 million euros were invested between 2014 and 2019, including for drilling 16 new exploration and production wells and sidetracks, modernization of production facilities and gas compression system.
The exploration of the Romanian continental shelf in the Black Sea was started in 1969 by the Romanian company Petrom. The first discovery of hydrocarbons took place in 1980, and the first production at sea began in 1987. Today, Petrom, part of OMV, after its acquisition by the Austrian group, has operations of exploration, development and production in shallow waters. depth (Istria block) and exploration operations in partnership with ExxonMobil in deep water (Neptun Deep). The production of crude oil and gas from shallow waters (Istria block) is about 25,000 boe / day. In 2019, it represented about 17% of the Group’s production in Romania.
OMV Petrom is the largest energy company in Southeast Europe, with an annual oil and gas production at group level of 55.4 million boe in 2019. The group has a refining capacity of 4.5 million tons per year. and operates an 860 MW high-efficiency power plant. On the retail petroleum products distribution market, the Group is present in Romania and neighboring countries through 798 gas stations, at the end of September 2020, under two brands, OMV and Petrom.
OMV Aktiengesellschaft, one of the largest listed industrial companies in Austria, holds 51.011% of the shares in OMV Petrom. The Romanian state, through the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment, holds 20.639% of OMV Petrom shares, Fondul Proprietatea holds 6.997%, and 21.353% are freely traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange.
OMV Petrom is the largest taxpayer in the state budget, with contributions of 30.4 billion euros representing taxes, duties and dividends paid between 2005 and 2019.
Since 2007, OMV Petrom has integrated the principles of corporate responsibility into its business strategy. In the period 2007-2019, the company allocated approximately 66 million euros for the development of Romanian communities, focusing on environmental protection, education, health and local development. On July 29, 2020, OMV Petrom announced its support for the recommendations issued by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) on climate change risks and opportunities.