October 8 (SeeNews) - Romania's top oil and gas group OMV Petrom [BSE:SNP] said on Tuesday said it has discovered new hydrocarbon resources in Gorj county, in Oltenia region.
Investments in the new well and facilities amount to approximately 50 million euro ($55 million), OMV Petrom said in a press release.
This sum is in addition to the 200 million euro already spent since 2011 for the development of the gas infrastructure in the Totea area.
Development works included drilling of five deep gas wells and construction of the 4540 Totea surface production facilities.
"Over the years, the Totea gas field has been one of the main contributors in our portfolio. As with any oil and gas field, Totea has started to decline after the end of the plateau production level in 2017. The discovery of additional resources in the proximity of Totea field is great news for the potential of the area and will compensate some of this decline," OMV Petrom executive board member responsible for upstream, Peter Zeilinger, said.
The drilling of the Totea 4461 well began in January 2018 and reached final depth in September of the same year. The well was successfully tested in April and showed up to 500,000 cu m of gas per day. Experimental production to test the potential and extent of the new accumulation has begun.
With the newly added well, the gas production from the Totea field, could provide heating for over 500,000 households.
OMV Petrom is the largest energy company in Southeast Europe, with an annual group hydrocarbon production of 58.3 million boe in 2018. The group has a refining capacity of 4.5 million tons annually and operates an 860 MW high efficiency power plant. The group is present on the oil products retail market in Romania and neighboring countries through 789 filling stations, at the end of June 2019, under two brands – OMV and Petrom.
OMV Aktiengesellschaft, one of the largest listed industrial companies in Austria, holds a 51.011% stake in OMV Petrom. The Romanian state, through the energy ministry, owns 20.639% of OMV Petrom, Fondul Proprietatea controls 9.998%, and 18.352% is the free float on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange.
Shares of blue-chip company OMV Petrom traded 0.60% lower at 0.4145 lei as at 1438 CET on Tuesday on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
(1 euro=4.7479 lei)