Bucharest, June 21, 2023 – OMV Petrom and Romgaz S.A. approved the development plan for the Domino and Pelican Sud commercial natural gas fields in the Neptun Deep perimeter, located in the Romanian territorial waters of the Black Sea. The commercial exploitation program will be submitted to the National Agency for Mineral Resources for confirmation, according to a press release sent Wednesday morning to the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
OMV Petrom is the gas exploitation operator, each of the companies having a 50% stake in the project.
OMV Petrom and Romgaz will invest up to 4 billion euros for the development phase of the project, which will generate a production of about 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
“With the final investment decision for the Neptun Deep project, we are opening a new chapter for the Romanian energy sector. Together with our partner, Romgaz, we are entering the development phase of the first deep offshore project in Romania. The project will contribute to the economic growth of Romania and will strengthen the country’s energy security. To illustrate the scale of the project: the production is equivalent to the current annual natural gas demand of about 4.3 million households multiplied by almost 30 times. It is also a major step for our 2030 strategy through which we support the energy transition in Romania and in the region”, declared Christina Verchere, CEO of OMV Petrom.
For his part, Răzvan Popescu, general director of Romgaz, emphasized that Neptun Deep is a strategic project for Romania and for the region from the perspective of ensuring the natural gas needs and the energy transition of the country.
“Starting with 2027, we will have a new source of natural gas, which has the potential to significantly increase the country’s natural gas production. We are proud to be part of an innovative project, which will bring significant long-term benefits,” Răzvan said Popescu.
The infrastructure required for the development of the Domino and Pelican South offshore natural gas fields includes 10 wells, 3 subsea production systems and the associated gathering pipeline network, an offshore platform, the main gas pipeline to Tuzla and a gas measurement station. The platform generates its own electricity, operating at the highest standards of safety and environmental protection. The entire infrastructure will be operated remotely, by means of a digital replica (digital twin). It allows the optimization of processes and will contribute to the improvement of environmental performance, by making energy consumption more efficient and reducing emissions.
The first production is estimated in 2027. The production at the plateau will be about 8 billion cubic meters annually (about 140,000 boe/day), for about 10 years.
The perimeter of Neptun Deep in the Black Sea has an area of 7,500 km2 and is located at a distance of about 160 km from the shore, in waters with depths between 100 and 1,000 meters. Perimeter exploration was accelerated in 2008 and included two 3D acquisition campaigns and two exploration drilling campaigns. The first gas discovery took place in 2012.
OMV Petrom is the largest energy company in South East Europe, with an annual group oil and gas production of approximately 43 million boe in 2022. The group has a refining capacity of 4.5 million tons annually and operates a high efficiency power plant of 860 MW. On the retail oil products distribution market, the Group is present in Romania and neighboring countries through approximately 780 gas stations, under two brands, OMV and Petrom.
OMV Petrom is a company in which Romanian shareholders own over 42% of the shares (of which the Romanian state, through the Ministry of Energy, owns 20.7%, and 21.7% are owned by Romanian pension funds, to which are added almost 500,000 individual investors and other Romanian entities).
Romgaz S.A. is the largest producer and main supplier of natural gas in Romania. The company is admitted to trading on the market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The main shareholder is the Romanian state with a 70% stake.
The company has extensive experience in the field of natural gas exploration and production, its history starting more than 100 years ago, in 1909. ROMGAZ carries out geological exploration in order to discover new gas deposits, produces methane gas by exploiting the deposits in the company’s portfolio , stores natural gas underground, performs interventions, capital repairs and special operations at wells and provides professional technological transport services.
