Oil and gas company Black Sea Oil & Gas, fully owned by Carlyle International Energy Partners, will begin the gas production in the Black Sea in mid-2018, when Romania will also become a gas exporter, said Niculae Havrilet, president of the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE), reports local Agerpres.

Black Sea Oil & Gas leased two oil blocks in the Romanian Black Sea continental shelf, namely Midia and Pelican perimeters.

According to Havrilet, the production will amount to one billion cubic meters of gas in the first year, and will increase gradually in the coming years to up to 4 billion cubic meters per year. By comparison, Romania’s annual gas consumption now stands at 12 billion cubic meters, whereas imports range between 500 and 600 million cubic meters per year.

Romania will no longer need to import, but will need to create conditions for gas exports, Havrilet added.

Romanian group OMV Petrom and American ExxonMobil have also discovered gas in the Black Sea and may start production towards the end of this decade.

editor@romania-insider.com