Romanian Black Sea offshore gas project gears up for drilling works

OMV Petrom SA

25/02/2025 11:00

* 
      Drilling on Romanian offshore gas project to start
March-April
    

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      Offshore project to double Romanian gas production from
2027
    

  
    By Luiza Ilie
       CONSTANTA, Romania, Feb 25 (Reuters) - On a frigid
morning on the Black Sea the sun is glaring into the quiet
navigation room of the massive semi-submersible drilling rig
Transocean Barents, anchored in Romania's Constanta port. 
    In a matter of weeks, the rig - known as the Mighty Barents
- will travel 160 kms out to sea and start drilling the 10 gas
wells that make up Neptun Deep, one of the European Union's most
significant gas deposits which will double Romania's production
and potentially turn it into a net exporter at a time when the
EU is winding down Russian gas purchases.
    Jointly owned by oil and gas group OMV Petrom  ROSNP.BX ,
majority-controlled by Austria's OMV  OMVV.VI , and Romanian
state-owned gas producer Romgaz  SNG.BX , Neptun Deep holds an
estimated 100 billion cubic meters (bcm) of recoverable gas. 
    "Once the ship goes out to sea it can start drilling in a
few days," said OMV Petrom senior executive Cristian Hubati,
adding it was a matter of weeks before that happened.
    On track to deliver first gas in 2027, Neptun Deep is
Romania's biggest energy project since it completed its second
nuclear reactor almost two decades ago. 
    The project faces opposition from the country's rising far
right, who regard gas exports as a betrayal of national
interest, and protests and legal challenges from environmental
activists, as well as fiscal uncertainty as the government seeks
to lower the European Union's largest budget deficit.
    To get past the bridges of the Bosphorous Strait and into
the Black Sea, Transocean's rig, which has previously drilled in
Canada, Norway, Cyprus and Lebanon, has had to lower its ram
guides for the first time since it became operational in 2009.
    Employees from 20 different companies were providing
services on the rig, which has  a cinema, a gym, a music room, a
cafeteria and offices split over four levels.     
    Once the drilling starts, with some wells at depths of more
than 1,000 metres, the rig will host up to 140 staff, which will
rotate every four weeks round the clock for up to 18 months,
manager Pierre Gully said. 

 (Reporting by Luiza Ilie; editing by David Evans)
 ((luiza.ilie@thomsonreuters.com; +4021 527 0312; https://www.reuters.com/journalists/luiza-ilie;))