The Black Sea, richer in gas than thought. The document presented to investors by OMV Petrom reveals this

According to a document presented to investors at the stock exchange, OMV Petrom, the largest company in Romania, estimates that it will be able to recover about 50 billion cubic meters of gas from the Neptun Deep perimeter, these representing only the company’s share. OMV Petrom currently owns 50% of the shares, but is the operator of the investment, the other part being owned by the Romanian state through Romgaz, writes ZF

Practically, with these estimates, the reserves in Neptun Deep would be about 100 billion cubic meters, Romania having an internal gas demand of about 12 billion cubic meters. At the average gas price of the first quarter, this gas reserve could be valued at 55 billion euros.

“With regard to the strategic pillar Regional development of natural gas, we are only a few months away from the final investment decision for our flagship Neptun Deep project, planned for mid-year, with development work planned to start in 2024 and the first natural gas extracted in 2027”, says Christina Verchere in another report of the group, the one for last year, published in March.

Initially, the natural gas reserve had been estimated at around 42-84 billion cubic meters, these being the results brought by the first exploration wells. Meanwhile, the estimates have become much more optimistic, something recently confirmed by Transgaz, the national natural gas transport company, in an interview published in the new edition of the ZF Energie yearbook.

“First of all – the first gas will be extracted starting from the fall of 2026. Second – as shown by the volume reserved by the two companies on the pipeline, the annual gas production of the Neptun field will be much higher than what was estimated so far. The 9,800 MWh of gas transported hourly means an annual volume of 8.1 billion cubic meters of gas that will enter the national transport network from the Black Sea.

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