The largest oil and gas producer in Southeastern Europe indicated that well 4545 Totea was drilled with a 20 inch column at a depth of 505 meters in the Totea Deep field.

The world record was certified by Odfjell Well Services, a privately owned international drilling, well service and engineering company with 40 years of experience from worldwide operations. This represents the first phase of the drilling of well 4545, the total estimated depth being around 3,500 meters.

Mariana Gheorghe, OMV Petrom CEO: "These exceptional achievements prove the professionalism of our drilling teams and set new benchmarks in operational excellence. Given that 2/3 of our production comes from fields that have been producing for around 50 years, the latest technologies and adequate expertise are needed to continue to supply oil and gas in Romania. In the last 8 years, our investments for exploration and production activities amounted to around EUR 5.5 bn."

Casing drilling technique is used in the mining and water-well industries and began to be used in the oil industry in 2002. OMV Petrom introduced this technique in 2012 and has since used it successfully in 17 projects.

Casing drilling consists of combining the drilling and casing of one section of a well into a single operation. Advantages of casing drilling are the reduction of operational costs, reduction of drilling time and the reduction of incidents caused by stuck pipes.

Totea Deep field was identified in 2011, following a 3D seismic exploration program. The field is situated in the South-west of Romania, in Oltenia region, and might represent the most important onshore gas discovery in Romania in the last years.

Four wells have been drilled in the Totea Deep field until now and the field’s production is 4,600 boe/day which represents around 5% of OMV Petrom gas production in Romania.