Romania could become energy independent once exploitation of the Black Sea natural gas reserves found by Exxon Mobil and OMV Petrom begins, and could even become a gas exporter to other countries in Europe, said Romanian president Traian Basescu after visiting Exxon Mobil's Deepwater Champion drilling ship.

Exploration on the new gas field could start in 2015-2017, said Basescu. This would be earlier than dates previously suggested by the two oil and gas companies involved. Exxon and Petrom initially said the gas discovery needs ten years and billions of euros invested before exploitation.

Basescu's speech after the visit revealed an even higher gas deposit that initially announced: around 100 million cubic meters and a similar quantity for other areas that will be searched in the upcoming period. Preliminary results pointed to some 84 billion of cubic meters of gas.

Romania has an annual consumption of around 14 billion cubic meters of gas. Last year, the country used 11.4 billion cubic meters of gas from internal production and 3 billion from imports.

“You can figure out for yourself how many years we could use the deposits found here. Romania has the potential for total energy independence. If the other deposits have similar quantities, Romania can become a gas exporter to other European countries,” said the Romanian president.

Basescu, a former ship captain himself, was impressed with Exxon's ship, which he said was like something from the science fiction series Star Trek.

editor@romania-insider.com