Neptun Deep partners mull faster launch

The developers behind the Neptun Deep deepwater natural gas project in Romania may look to bring the field into production faster than they had planned, in light of Europe's push to find alternatives to Russian gas, Bloomberg reported on May 25.

“Given what’s happening in the European Union, and the necessity to have gas flowing sooner than we expected, we’re trying to look at different approaches,” said Razvan Popescu, CFO of Romgaz, in an interview with Bloomberg. “We’re looking at various metrics as the gas price has gone through the roof.”

State-controlled Romgaz SA reached a deal to acquire ExxonMobil's 50% stake in the Neptun Deep project in early May, for over $1bn. Pending government approvals, the transaction is expected to close in Q2 2022, upon which OMV Petrom, which owns the remaining 50%, will assume operatorship of the project.

According to Popescu, the partners will likely re-evaluate the development based on existing Black Sea infrastructure, and undertake the project on a staged basis in order to accelerate first gas to the market.

“Neptun production should start no later than 2026,” Popescu said.