Italian Gas Plus Takes Romanian Offshore Gas Stake From Sterling

Italian Gas Plus has taken a fifteen per cent stake in Romanian offshore blocks Midia and Pelican in the Black Sea, it announced on Friday. 

The company will operate the stake in conjunction with operator Sterling Resources, who hold a 65 per cent stake, and Petro Ventures Europe, who hold the remaining 20 percent stake.

Gas Plus's stake comes after Sterling faced a delay in the granting of equity to partners. Sterling announced that it had received the documentation approving the assignment of equity to partners and confirming the term of the offshore license from the Romanian National Agency for Mineral Resources (NAMR) on Friday. The company had previously filed a dispute with the agency on June 20 this year.

The initial exploration licence will expire in May 2014.

"We are very happy about the official entry in one of the most significant offshore projects in the Black Sea," Chief Executive of Gas Plus Davide Usberti said. "It represents a concrete and important step in internationalisation of our E&P activities, one of our goals since our IPO in 2006."

Sterling's President and CEO Mike Azancot welcomed the receipt of the documentation from NAMR, and said he looked forward to the Romanian Black Sea partnership's continued exploration.

"We are pleased to conclude the execution of this documentation with NAMR which will permit Sterling and its partners to resume exploration and appraisal activities in the Romanian Black Sea as well as to push forward with the development of our Ana and Doina discoveries," he said.