Page 7 - Euroil Week 31 2019

EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil
Romania seeks contractor for Black Sea pipe
ROMANIA
The pipeline will transport gas from Black Sea discoveries.
ROMANIA has launched a tender for the con- struction of a pipeline that will facilitate the ow of gas from Black Sea elds to market.
National gas transmission operator Transgaz has asked the European Bank for Reconstruc- tion and Development (EBRD) to help nance the second stage of the Black Sea-Podisor pro- ject, the bank revealed on August 2. e project aims to lay a 308-km pipeline from Romania’s Black Sea shore to a connection point near Bucharest.
e pipeline’s second stage, estimated to cost between €287-330mn euros ($319-367mn) to build, will run from the coastal town of Tuzla to Podisor. Its completion will enable o shore gas producers to pump their output to both domestic markets and overseas.
According to the EBRD, Transgaz has also invited contractors to submit o ers to build the pipe by an October 31 deadline.
Romanian authorities have said before they expect the Black Sea-Podisor project to be up and running by 2021. Any delay would risk impeding the development of o shore gas elds.
Austro-Romanian rm OMV Petrom and US major ExxonMobil are targeting a 2021 launch for their Neptun Deep eld o Romania, thought to contain 84bn cubic metres of recoverable gas, as is US investment fund Carlyle Group for its nearby Midia Gas project.
Prospects for Romania’s o shore gas indus- try have dimmed since the government recently imposed new taxes on producers and put in place restrictions on domestic gas prices.
OMV Petrom and Exxon are yet to take a nal investment decision (FID) at Neptun Deep, increasing the likelihood the project will fall behind schedule. Exxon is reportedly even con- sidering exiting the venture.
In a July 31 earnings report, OMV Petrom said that “the current legislative environment does not provide the necessary prerequisites for a multi-billion [euro] investment decision,” although it noted it was still “keen” to take Nep- tun Deep into production.
“We will continue the dialogue with the authorities to understand the way forward,” the company said. ™
INVESTMENT
OMV not noti ed about Exxon’s Romanian exit
ROMANIA
OMV was reported
to be looking to buy partner ExxonMobil’s share in Neptun Deep.
OFFICIALS of Austrian group OMV, the major- ity owner of Romanian oil and gas group OMV Petrom, have claimed that the company was not noti ed by its American partner ExxonMobil about exit plans plans related to the Neptun Deep gas project jointly operated by the two partners in the Black Sea, Pro t.ro reported on August 5. e Romanian government also did not inform OMV about such plans, OMV rep- resentatives said.
“So far we have no o cial information, nei- ther from ExxonMobil nor from the govern- ment, about changes in the project’s shareholder structure,” said OMV CEO Rainer Seele in a recent teleconference with nancial analysts.
The statement comes after media first announced such plans considered by ExxonMo- bil in mid-July and a letter reportedly circulated by the US company to interested parties leaked to media. Minister of Energy Anton Anton, however, claimed that he was not informed about such plans and “the journalists should better check with the mineral resources agency ANMR” (which deals with operating licences and was reportedly informed according to the letter circulated).
Local media quoting Reuters also informed
of ExxonMobil’s global need for cash and plans to sell assets—while also stressing that the Nep- tun Black Sea perimeter is not on the list of assets to be sold, possibly since it is not particularly liq- uid. Indeed, none of the large global oil compa- nies are likely to take over Exxon’s 50% stake in Neptun, but both OMV and subsidiaries of Car- lyle Investment Fund (already active in Roma- nia’s o shore hydrocarbon sector) are reportedly interested, according to local media.
ExxonMobil could either sell its 50% share of the rights in the Black Sea perimeter or the whole company that has the extraction rights in this perimeter, in which OMV Petrom holds the remaining 50%, could go on sale, according to a con dential letter leaked to Economica.net and published on July 31.
Around mid-July, uno cial sources quoted by G4media.ro informed about ExxonMobil’s plans to pull out from the Romanian project. Exxon’s representatives reportedly informed the Romanian Government and the National Agency for Mineral Resources – ANRM that they wanted to give access to other companies to information about the gas exploitation project in the Black Sea and eventually sell the license, Government and oil industry sources told G4media.ro.
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