Bogdan Tudorache

While Exxon threatens to sell its Romanian stake in Neptun Deep, the Energy Ministry has announced it has released its permit for the execution of an onshore geotechnical survey in Tuzla, Constanta County, to build a gas measuring station by the US company.

“The site where drills and measurements will be made consist of three plots with a total area of over 200,000 sqm. The authorization was issued following the request of ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Romania and the works that the American company will carry out in Tuzla are valued at 2.1 million lei, excluding VAT”, the Ministry announced.

ExxonMobil, the company exploring the deep Neptune perimeter of the Black Sea alongside OMV Petrom, informed the government representatives late last week that they wanted to attract a new partner in the project, government sources said on Monday.

Exxon officials have told energynomics.ro today (Wednesday –e.n.) that they “do not comment about speculations”, refraining from other comments.

“They are looking for an investor, they want to bring someone else into the project, a third partner, but Exxon will remain an operator, they have not come up with a name yet. This is a lengthy process, it is several months in which the Agency for Mineral Resources to approve this, and the new partner has the right to consult the data,” said on Monday sources quoted by Agerpres. According to them, representatives of the Government and those of Exxon have regular meetings.

Representatives of ExxonMobil did not wish to comment on this information.

ExxonMobil and OMV Petrom exploit the deep sea Neptune block in the Black Sea, where preliminary results indicated reserves of 42-84 billion cubic meters of gas, but the companies postponed the decision to move on with the extraction stage.