Bogdan Tudorache

The Black Sea Oil & Gas project goes ahead, albeit with minor delays, but offshore legislation and GEO 114 have been hostile and harmful to Romania, and the situation needs to be remedied until production begins, says Mark Beacom, CEO of Black Sea Oil & Gas.

BSOG is building a new offshore shipping platform at Agigea, has begun work on the gas treatment station and has commissioned the necessary equipment, including about 126 km of pipelines, needed to connect the future platform to the shore, says Beacom.

“The project goes forward, although we have some small delays. We should have been at 50% now, but we are only at 25%, but the first gas molecule will be extracted next year,” says Beacom.

“It took us six years, however, to make the final investment decision. When I spoke to our management, I told them that the decision must be made ‘now’. We had all the agreements … if we had not made the decision then, it would have been delayed by another two years. However, we continued to fight, together with other associations, for the offshore law and against GEO 114. We still insist, and it is vital for us, that these issues must be resolved until we start gas production. Otherwise, it means that we presented a wrong situation to our shareholders, to whom we made promises. These laws are so hostile and harmful to Romania, that I hope common sense will win … We will not produce for two years, but then we will start production and I do not want to seem to have lied (the shareholders),” said Beacom, at ZF Power Summit.