The oil company Black Sea Oil & Gas (BSOG), controlled by the American asset management group Carlyle, the only concessionaire of natural gas perimeters in the Black Sea that has so far made the final decision to invest in the Romanian offshore, maintains its goal of starting next year the gas production on the Midia concession, in spite of the problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The project works advance on the premise that the “hostile” provisions of the investments in the Offshore Law will be modified by the Bucharest authorities, according to Profit.ro.

“The project is currently at 33% and we still believe that the goal of starting gas production in 2021 is feasible,” BSOG CEO Mark Beacom told S&P Global Platts.

He said that in the second quarter of 2020, the company completed an important stage of the project, namely the transport of 147 kilometers of pipeline from Greece to the BSOG site in Agigea.

“We did this during the state of emergency in full compliance with the restrictions imposed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Beacom said. The Midia project stipulates that the gases extracted from the Ana offshore platform will reach a gas treatment plant located on the shore, with a capacity of 1 billion cubic meters per year (representing about 10% of Romania’s annual consumption), through a 126 km long pipeline.