OMV Petrom kicks off new offshore drilling campaign in Black Sea

Romanian energy company OMV Petrom has started a new offshore drilling campaign in the shallow waters of the Istria block in the Black Sea.

OMV Petrom said on Monday that the two new wells would be drilled by the end of the year, requiring investments of over 30 million euros ($34.1M).

Peter Zeilinger, member of OMV Petrom’s Executive Board responsible for Upstream, said: “The Istria block in the shallow waters of the Black Sea has a history of over 30 years of oil and gas production. Although fields are mature and reached their plateau production years ago, sustained investment and adequate engineering solutions enable us to unlock additional resources and to mitigate production decline.”

The two wells will be drilled at over 2,000 meters below the seabed, in water depths of approximately 50 meters. They target additional production from the Lebada East field (oil and associated gas), discovered in 1979.

According to the company, this offshore drilling campaign comes in continuation of investment projects for offshore production in the shallow waters of the Black Sea: over 350 million euro were invested between 2014 and 2018, including drilling ten new production wells and sidetracks, upgrading the gas compressor system and modernizing production facilities.

Currently, OMV Petrom has exploration, development and production operations in the shallow waters (Istria block) and exploration activities in partnership with ExxonMobil in deepwater areas (Neptun Deep).

Oil and gas production in shallow waters (Istria block) currently amounts to approximately 25,000 boe/day. In 2018, it accounted for around 17% of the Group’s domestic production. The production comes from five producing fields: Lebăda East (discovered in 1979), Lebăda Vest (discovered in 1984), Sinoe (discovered in 1988), Pescăruș (discovered in 1999) and Delta (discovered in 2007).

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