Bucharest, June 13, 2023 – OMV Petrom has discovered new oil and natural gas resources in the Oltenia and Muntenia regions of southern Romania. According to the company, the investment in the exploratory drilling campaign amounted to approximately 20 million euros.
Cumulatively, the discoveries amount to more than 30 million boe of recoverable resources, the equivalent of three-quarters of the production achieved by OMV Petrom in the year 2022.
According to the quoted source, the exploratory drilling and testing of these three wells took place between June 2022 and April 2023. The company invested approximately 20 million euros in the exploratory drilling.
“Romania has been producing crude oil and gas for over 150 years, and in these conditions the identification of new resources requires a significant effort. The new discoveries will contribute to reducing the decline of our production and to the continuity of the supply of essential products for the economy”, stated Cristian Hubati, member of the OMV Petrom Directorate, responsible for the Exploration and Production activity.
According to the cited source, one of the discoveries made by OMV Petrom was in the Verguleasa exploration perimeter, in the Oltenia region.
“The company has identified crude oil resources amounting to approximately 20 million boe in total, which represents OMV Petrom’s largest crude oil discovery in decades. The discovery is in close proximity to another mining area, which provides synergies that will contribute to the faster start of production”, the press release states.
At the same time, another discovery took place in the Târgovişte exploration area, where crude oil resources were identified in an estimated amount of 6 million boe. The test works took place in April 2023, and those preceding the exploitation development are being prepared.
“A third discovery was made in the Târgu Jiu exploration perimeter and natural gas resources of 7 million boe were identified, equivalent to almost a third of Romania’s natural gas production in 2022. A second well is already planned for next year, and the preparations for the connection are in progress”, states the quoted source.
According to the quoted source, all discoveries are the result of the company’s exploration strategy, focused on opportunities near existing deposits, which facilitates the rapid development, connection and early production of newly discovered resources.
OMV Petrom is the largest integrated 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 tonnes 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). OMV Aktiengesellschaft, one of Austria’s largest listed industrial companies, owns 51.2% of OMV Petrom shares, with the remaining 6.4% held by other foreign investors. Of the total OMV Petrom shares, 28.1% are freely traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange.
OMV Petrom is the largest contributor to the state budget, with approximately 39 billion euros representing fees, taxes and dividends paid between 2005 and 2022. In the same period, the company invested approximately 17 billion euros. In 2022, the taxes paid by OMV Petrom provided 7% of Romania’s fiscal revenues.
Since 2007, OMV Petrom has integrated the principles of corporate responsibility into its business strategy. Between 2007 and 2022, the company allocated around 120 million euros for the development of communities in Romania, focusing on environmental protection, education, health, and local development.
