Energy independence for Romania?
Romania may become energy-independent in future owing to a new project to extract its Black Sea natural gas.
Ştefan Stoica, 23.06.2023, 01:50
The private company OMV Petrom, the biggest in the energy sector in south-eastern Europe, together with the national company Romgaz will develop the Neptun Deep project, the largest natural gas exploitation project in the Romanian section of the Black Sea. The announcement was made on Thursday by the representatives of the two companies, who said the first gas is expected in four years time. Until then, the two partners will invest up to 4 billion euros in the development of the project. Later, they will equally divide production, which is estimated at around 100 billion cubic metres of natural gas.
As far as Romania is concerned, the impact will be huge: it will double its production, which will exceed the current domestic demand, thus ending up with a surplus, to become a contributor to Europes energy security. Prime minister Marcel Ciolacu said Romania could make the decisive step towards obtaining its energy independence. We have the experience and the expertise to become the European Unions largest producer of natural gas, he said. He also hailed the team work between the state and the private environment without which the Neptun Deep project would not have been possible.
Christina Verchere, the CEO of OMV Petrom said that her company together with Romgaz would begin to develop the largest deep-see project in Romania aiming at a production that will be 30 times more than the annual demand, which covers 4.3 million households. She said the Romanian state stands to gain 20 billion euros. Thanks to the billion-euro-worth investment, Neptun Deep will be a success, because it benefits from the biggest infrastructure and state of the art technologies that both protect the environment and ensure operation safety. She also said that two gas fields, Domino and Pelican Sud, have a depth of between 100 and 1,000 m, and that there will be 10 wells that will extract natural gas which will be brought to a new off-shore platform. These units will be operated remotely, which will allow for the safety and optimisation of processes. The gas will be processed on the onshore platform and then sent through a pipeline connected to the national network.
The director general of Petrom Răzvan Popescu emphasised the strategic nature of the project:
“Neptun Deep is a strategic project both for Romania and the region, with the prospect of ensuring the needed gas supply from 2027, thanks to this new source of gas, which has the potential to significantly boost the countrys hydrocarbon production.”
The development plan of the two commercial natural gas fields jointly submitted by OMV Petrom and Romgaz is next to be confirmed by the National Agency for Mineral Resources. (CM)
