The Black Sea has a potential of over 200 billion cubic meters of gas and 60 percent of Romania’s production will come from offshore deposits in 2030, but the biggest problem is what will happen to this gas, Sorin Gal, director of the National Agency for Mineral Resources (ANRM).

„The potential of the Black Sea, which we estimated – one year ago – is somewhere over 200 billion cubic meters. I think there is much more to it and this is reinforced by the fact that, after the construction of surface installations and underwater pipelines that bring gas to the shore, both by the owner of the oil fields Ana and Doina (Black Sea Oil and Gas), as well as by the future producers OMV, Exxon, Lukoil, will create the opportunity for the small fields to develop,” Gal explained, according to Agerpres.

He has shown that, besides the large deposits of 30-40 billion cubic meters, there are many small deposits of 4-5 billion cubic meters around them, which will become feasible after the nearby facilities surface and construction required to bring gas to shore.

According to Gal, Black Sea Oil and Gas (BSOG) will be the first largest producer in the Black Sea, which will start extracting in 2022 some 2 billion cubic meters per year.

Concerning ExxonMobil and OMV Petrom, exploring the deep Neptun field, the ANRM official estimates that the development phase will begin in 2021-2022, and in 2024-2025, the latest, production will begin.