January 18 (SeeNews) - Romania's top oil and gas group OMV Petrom [BSE:SNP] said on Monday that it plans to invest 32 million euro ($38.8 million) in a new drilling campaign in the Black Sea.
OMV Petrom initiated a new offshore drilling campaign in the shallow waters of the Istria block in the Black Sea, it said in a statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB.
The first drilling operations started at the end of December and the drilling of the second well will start at the beginning of this year.
"OMV Petrom has had an active presence in the Black Sea for over four decades and, during this period, OMV Petrom demonstrated its important role for the economic development of Romania. Using modern technical solutions, we seek to unlock additional resources that can compensate for the decline of the domestic production from mature fields," OMV Petrom member of the executive board responsible for Upstream Chris Veit said.
"The Black Sea has a strategic importance for Romania's gas production, which currently covers almost 10% of the country's annual gas consumption."
The two development wells are being drilled at depths of over 2,500 m below the seabed, in waters with a depth of around 60 m.
This drilling campaign continues the series of investment projects for offshore production in the shallow waters of the Black Sea, in which over 500 million euro were invested between 2014 and 2019, the company added. This also includes investments in the drilling of 16 exploration and production wells and sidetracks as well as modernisation of the production facilities and gas compression system.
In the Black Sea, OMV Petrom has exploration, development and production operations in the shallow waters (Istria block) and exploration operations in partnership with ExxonMobil in deepwater areas (Neptun Deep). Oil and gas production in shallow waters amounts to approximately 25,000 boe per day. In 2019, it accounted for around 17% of the group’s domestic production.
OMV Petrom is the largest integrated energy company in Southeast Europe, with an annual group hydrocarbon production of 55.4 million boe in 2019. 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 798 filling stations, at the end of September 2020, under two brands – OMV and Petrom.
Austria's OMV Aktiengesellschaft holds a 51.011% stake in OMV Petrom. The Romanian economy ministry owns 20.639% and 28.35% is the free float on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) and the London Stock Exchange.
Shares in blue-chip OMV Petrom traded 0.89% higher at 0.3960 lei by 0912CET on the BVB on Monday.
($=0.8422 euro)
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