Lukoil, PanAtlantic and Romgaz claim to have discovered in the Romanian Offshore perimeter, a gas deposit currently estimated to at least 30 billion cubic meters. The deposit is located in the Trident EX30 block from the Black Sea, according to a press release from Romgaz.

Since 2011 the geological explorations works, from the EX-30 Trident block are performed, as operator, by Lukoil Overseas Atash B.V., based on the Concession Agreement signed with the Government. Now the participation rates in the Concession Agreement are Romgaz SA – 10%, Lukoil – 72% PanAtlantic Petroleum Ltd. – 18%. Lukoil has also a concession for the Rhapsody block in the Black Sea.

The water depth in the EX-30 Trident block, fluctuates from 300 to 1200 meters. The area of the block is ​​1,006 sq.km. The drilling well is located approximately 170 kilometers from shore, with the water depth, approximately of 700 meters. The well was drilled to a depth of 2,700 meters using semisubmersible offshore drilling platform “Development Driller II” belonging to the company Transocean Ltd. Upon the completion of the drilling, the drilling well was put into conservation, in order to carry out further evaluation works of the deposit.

In 2012, the US company ExxonMobil and OMV Petrom announced they had found, also in the Black Sea, a natural gas deposit, preliminary estimated at 42-84 billion cubic meters.

According to the preliminary results of the analysis of data obtained during the drilling and geophysical investigations, the probe encountered a gas deposit of a thickness of 46 meters in the EX30 Trident block.

Romgaz announced that the deposit area can reach 39 square kilometers and the reserves, that will be confirmed by the drilling evaluation, may exceed 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas. The future works program planned for 2016 includes a reprocessing of the seismic data and the drilling in the LIRA deposit, of an exploration well for evaluation, to confirm the discovery and to confirm the volume of the hydrocarbon potential.

“For Romgaz the partnership in exploration blocks from the Black Sea represents a new direction of business development and of the deposits portofolio. We are a company with over 100 years experience in on-shore works, but we are open to new challenges of offshore works and we are glad to have partners with experience in the field,” said Virgil Metea, CEO at Romgaz.