OMV Petrom enters Total’s Black Sea block

OMV Petrom has completed the acquisition of 100 per cent of the shares in OMV Offshore Bulgaria GmbH from OMV Exploration & Production GmbH and entered the Han-Asparuh exploration block in the Black Sea offshore Bulgaria.

OMV Petrom announced its plan to enter the offshore block back in December 2019.

Closing of the transaction was subject to certain conditions precedent.

OMV Petrom said on Monday that, following Repsol’s exit, the Bulgarian regulator approved the allocation of Repsol’s 30 per cent participating interest to the remaining two partners.

Thus, OMV Petrom’s share in the block, via OMV Offshore Bulgaria GmbH, is now 42.86 per cent, alongside Total (57.14 per cent) being the operator.

Peter Zeilinger, member of OMV Petrom Executive Board, responsible for Upstream: “This acquisition is an important step in our strategy to expand our Upstream operations in the region. OMV Petrom has been active in the Black Sea for over four decades as operator and has gained valuable deep water experience as non-operator in the adjacent Neptun Deep license in Romania”.

In 2012, the Bulgarian Government awarded the Han-Asparuh exploration block to the consortium of OMV (30 per cent), Total (40 per cent) and Repsol (30 per cent).

Han-Asparuh is located in the western Black Sea in Bulgaria, south of the Neptun Deep Block in Romania and has an area of 13,819 km² with maximum water depths of over 2,000 m.

Exploration activities started in 2012 and included geological and geophysical surveys and the drilling of three exploration wells.

The first exploration well, Polshkov-1, was drilled in 2016. This was followed by the drilling of two further exploration wells in 2017 (Rubin 1) and 2018 (Melnik 1).

An extensive 3D seismic campaign was finalized in May 2020 by Shearwater Geoservices. The survey covered 5,614 km².

The seismic data are currently being processed, and, based on the results, future exploration activities will be undertaken by the joint venture, OMV Petrom said.

Currently, 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).