Romanian President: Black Sea Deep-water Well May Produce by 2015

Romanian President Traian Basescu has said that an OMV/ExxonMobil joint venture on a massive deep-water well in the Black Sea could begin production by early 2015.

Basescu paid a visit to the Domino-1 deep-water well, the first of its kind in Romania, is jointly developed by ExxonMobil and OMV subsidiary Petrom. The well is targeting a massive gas discovery made last month, which the companies believe has reserves of up to three trillion cubic feet of gas.

More research is still needed to decide whether the well will be commercially viable, OMV head of exploration and production Jaap Huijskes said at the time. He also said that "multiple billion dollars" would be required to develop the well.

However, despite OMV's caution, President Basecu said today that production could potentially begin from the Domino-1 well as early as the beginning of 2015.

"Exploiting the well could start once all explorations are finished, so ... sometime around 2015-2017," Agerpres quoted the president as saying.

He also said that there was the potential for much more gas development and production in the country, and could market its own gas in the future.

"It is clear Romania has a chance at total energy independence and if the other wells that will be explored will indicate similar quantities Romania can be a source of natural gas not only for itself but for many other countries in Europe," he said.

ExxonMobil and Petrom each hold a 50 per cent in the Domino-1 well in the Neptun Block in the Black Sea.