Austria's OMV has reportedly struck a deal to supply Germany's Uniper with gas from the Neptun Deep Black Sea project, where it holds a 50% stake and which it operates through its Romanian subsidiary OMV Petrom, according to sources familiar with the matter consulted by Reuters. The deliveries would begin in 2027.

The contract reportedly envisages 15 TWh (1.34 billion cubic meters for a calorific value of 11.2 kWh per cubic meter) of gas per year delivered over five years - therefore, 6.75 billion cubic meters for the entire five-year period.

For the current EU Dutch TTF price of natural gas (EUR 48 per MWh), the value of the gas contracted is EUR 720 million per year or EUR 3.6 billion for the entire five-year period.

The annual deliveries under the contract account for 1.5% of Germany's natural gas imports in 2024 [not reported, but probably slightly more than the 970 TWh imported in 2023], according to Reuters.

Neptun Deep is expected to yield 8 billion cubic meters per year during the first years of operations, which puts the Uniper deal at 17% of the field's yield during the first five years of operation or 6.75% of the field's recoverable reserves.

Once the Neptun Deep offshore gas field comes online, the 100 billion cubic meters of recoverable reserves will make Romania the EU's largest gas producer and a net gas exporter for the first time.

Neptun Deep is the second offshore gas project hosted by Romania's Black Sea after Black Sea Oil and Gas (BSOG) controlled by the US investment fund Carlyle. The 1 billion cubic meters per year extracted by BSOG since mid-2022 are exported to Bulgaria under a long-term contract signed by the field's operator with French energy group Engie.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Facebook/OMV Petrom)