Romanian oil and gas firm OMV Petrom said Monday it had started drilling two new development wells in the shallow waters of the Istria block, in the Black Sea.
The first drilling operations started at the end of December 2020 and the drilling of the second well will start at the beginning of this year. The investment for this campaign is approximately EUR 32 million, OMV Petrom said.
"OMV Petrom has had an active presence in the Black Sea for over four decades and, during this period, OMV Petrom demonstrated its important role for the economic development of Romania. Using modern technical solutions, we seek to unlock additional resources that can compensate for the decline of the domestic production from mature fields."
The Black Sea has a strategic importance for Romania's gas production, which currently covers almost 10% of the country's annual gas consumption", said Chris Veit, Member of the Executive Board responsible for Upstream.
The two development wells are being drilled at depths of over 2,500 meters below the seabed, in waters with a depth of around 60 meters.
Offshore Engineer reached out to OMV Petrom, seeking more info on the goal of the drilling campaign and on the rig being used.
Our goal with this new campaign is to mitigate the natural decline of our shallow offshore fields. The wells are being drilled with GSP Saturn jack-up drilling rig," an OMV Petrom spokesperson said."