Romanian oil and gas company OMV Petrom submitted a declaration of commercial discovery to the Romanian Mineral Resources Agency (NAMR) regarding the offshore gas field Neptun Deep.
OMV Petrom said that it estimates the investments for reaching the production stage at 4 billion euros. The declaration represents an intermediate step in the process of making the final investment decision and starting the development. In the context of the fulfillment of all procedural steps, the final investment decision is estimated for mid-2023, and the first gas production for the beginning of 2027.
However, the state’s representative on the company’s board Razvan Nicolescu, recently said that the investment decision is more of an internal decision of OMV Petrom that has nothing to do with the investment calendar that is triggered by the declaration of commercial discovery.
In September, OMV Petrom’s CEO Christina Verchere said that the company will need at least another 12 months to make the decision. On the other hand, OMV Petrom’s partner in the project, state-owned Romgaz, is extremely committed to the realization of the Neptun Deep gas project, according to its CEO Razvan Popescu. However, following the sale of ExxonMobil’s 50 % stake in the project to Romgaz, OMV Petrom became the project’s operator, and Verchere believes that there should be stable regulatory and fiscal framework in place, before committing to such a large investment.
