"For the Black Sea projects to take off, it is absolutely necessary that all the legislation that is hostile to the investors in offshore oil fields, adopted in 2018, disappears completely," said Mark Beacon, CEO of Black Sea Oil & Gas (BSOG), Agerpres reported. 

The company, controlled by US group Carlyle, is ready to start production at its Midia gas project in the Romanian Black Sea next year.

BSOG and oil service company GSP Offshore, controlled by local businessman Gabriel Comanescu, organized an event on the occasion of starting another stage of the construction works. They invited prime minister Ludovic Orban, the head of the ruling Liberal Party, to the event.

The event comes several days after PM Orban made ambiguous statements about the opportunity to quickly amend the Offshore Law and address the requests of the oil companies involved in such projects. In a later comment, PM Orban explained that a more robust majority is needed in Parliament for amending such an important piece of legislation.

BSOG CEO said that he does not ask for a preferential regime for the company he heads, nor preferential treatment than other industries.

"What we want is a warm welcome as a member of Romania's winning team," Beacom said, explaining that the competition for extracting the Black Sea's natural gas is fierce, but the country possesses all the necessary strengths and qualities to win it.

Gabriel Comanescu, the owner of GSP Offshore, assured that MGD could start production in mid-2021. The project is less technically demanding because it is located in shallow water (as opposed to Neptun Deep developed by OMV Petrom and ExxonMobil).

The gas field is expected to produce some 1 billion cubic meters per year or ten bln cubic meters over its lifespan estimated at 10-15 years. For comparison, Romania's gas consumption has decreased over the last decade from 13 to 10 bln cubic meters per year.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Blackseaog.com)