Romania To Explore New Black Sea Gas Reserve

A new gas deposit has been located in Romania's portion of the Black Sea. Rough estimations point to approximately 20-25 B cubic meters.

The discovery was made on Thursday by a third exploration well located in the Neptun region and was sponsored by both the Romanian company OMV Petrom and the US ExxonMobil.

The findings of the Pelican South-1 drilling station are still being evaluated, as reported by the Romanian publication Ziarul Financiar.

In comparison, Romania's total gas consumption amounted to merely 12.5 B cubic meters in 2013.

Petrom and ExxonMobil have had previous successful oil exploration operations in the Black Sea region. In 2012 a gas deposit of 42-84 B cubic meters was found.

Surprisingly enough, OMV Petrom recently reported a 56% decline of its net income, Bloomberg reported. A total of RON 2.1 B (USD 539 M) entered the company's budget, as compared to RON 4,8 B over the previous year.

According to the Romania's biggest oil producer, the main reasons for the profit drop are the higher production costs and lower oil prices on international markets.

Petrom nonetheless announced a further investment of between EUR 800 M and EUR 1.1 B in Romania's oil industry.

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