OMV Petrom has discovered new hydrocarbon resources in the Oltenia region, the company announced.

“Throughout the years, the Totea deposit has been one of the most productive in our portfolio. However, as it happens with any oil and gas deposit, Totea went into decline after reaching its production top in 2017. The discovery of additional resources near the Totea deposit is extraordinary news for the area’s potential and will partially offset its previous decline,” said Peter Zeilinger, a member of OMV Petrom’s Board of Directors, responsible for Upstream.

The drilling of the Totea 4461 well began in January 2018 and reached its final depth in September of the same year. The probe was successfully tested in April 2019 for volumes up to 500,000 cubic meters/ day, around 3% of the current production of the company in Romania. The connection to the infrastructure in the Totea area was made in less than a year and experimental production was started, to test the potential and size of the new discovery.

Investments in the new well and related infrastructure amount to about 50 million euro. The amount is added to the 200 million euro already invested since 2011 for the development of the gas infrastructure in the Totea area. Development work included drilling five deep wells and constructing the Totea 4540 gas production park.