ExxonMobil and OMV Discover Huge Gas Field in Romania

A joint venture between ExxonMobil and OMV subsidiary Petrom has made a massive discovery of gas in Romanian waters, OMV Chief Executive Gerhard Roiss said. 

According to Mr. Roiss, the find may be the largest gas find OMV has ever made. The gas find, discovered by the Domino-1 well in the Neptun block, approximately 170 kilometres offshore from Romania, is believed to contain reserves of up to three trillion cubic feet of gas.

"The exploration well encountered 70.7 meters of net gas pay, resulting in a preliminary estimate for the accumulation ranging from 1.5 to 3 trillion cubic feet (42 to 84 billion cubic metres)," a statement from OMV said yesterday.

The Domino-1 well, Romania's first deep water well, is currently targeting a depth of 930 metres depth on the Neptun block and began operations at the end of 2011. The total depth of the well is expected to exceed 3,000 metres depth. These drilling operation are now being finalised with 3D seismic acquisition expected during 2012, ExxonMobil and OMV said.

Head of exploration and production at OMV Jaap Huijskes said that it was still to early to determine whether the find would be commercially viable or not. He said the companies would need to spend "multiple billion dollars" to develop the well.

Seismic and appraisal "will take some time," he said. "The Black Sea is not off the coast of Aberdeen, it takes some time to get rigs into the Black Sea and it takes time to get seismic vessels into the Black Sea."

First production, if the well is successful, would not be ready until the end of the decade, the statement emphasised. 

OMV and ExxonMobil hold an equal stake in the Domino-1 well at 50 per cent each. ExxonMobil is the operator of the well.