Page 9 - Euroil Week 40 2019
P. 9
EurOil POLICY EurOil
Bosnian Serbs to resume gas to the Muslim-Croat Federation
BOSNIA
BOSNIA & Herzegovina’s Serb-dominated entity will resume gas deliveries to the Mus- lim-Croat Federation, averting at the last minute an energy crisis that would have le half of the country without gas.
Bosnia consists of two autonomous entities – the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska and the Federation. BH Gas has a contract with Serbia’s gas company Srbijagas, which was responsible for transporting it through Republika Srpska to the Federation, but that agreement expired on September 30.
Meanwhile, transport of gas was taken over by Gas Promet, which insisted that the renewal of the contract should be arranged as a deal between two independent states, not two entities of the same country, which was unacceptable for the Federation.
At an urgent meeting organised by the Feder- ation’s government, a contract was signed late on October 2, and the deliveries had to be immedi- ately resumed, according to a statement on the Federation government’s website. It provided no details on the agreement.
Meanwhile, the state-level Foreign Trade Minister Mirko Sarovic said the country should diversify sources of natural gas supplies.
“In making strategic decisions, Bosnia should be guided by its own need to provide more di er- ent sources of gas supply, which would provide the security of supply and greater competitive- ness in terms of gas prices as well as bene ts to end consumers,” Sarovic said in Athens where he is attending the First Annual Eastern Medi- terranean Energy Leadership Summit as quoted byN1.
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
Romania launches new gas find
ROMANIA
Discoveries on the shore of Romania have grown rare.
OMV Petrom, the Romanian arm of Austria’s OMV, has brought on stream a new gas discov- ery of Romania’s southern Oltenia region.
e nd was made close to the already-de- veloped Totea deposit, which has seen output decline since reaching a peak in 2017, OMV Petrom board member Peter Zeilinger said in a statement on October 8.
“ e discovery of additional resources near the Totea deposit is extraordinary news for the area’s potential and will partially o set this decline,” he said.
OMV Petrom began drilling the Totea-4461 well in January 2018, with the borehole reaching its design depth in September that year. Tests took place this year, with the well achieving ow rates of up to 500,000 cubic metres per day.
Connection to the Totea facilities through a newly built pipeline was achieved in less than
a year. Gas from the eld is transported via a 25-km pipeline to the Hurezani gas hub for treatment and then dispatched to the national grid.
The well and associated infrastructure cost €50mn to develop, adding to the €200mn already spent since 2011 on developing gas infra- structure in the Totea area, according to OMV Petrom. e launch of the next well could pro- vide heating for more than 500,000 households, it said.
OMV Petrom is the largest oil and gas pro- ducer in Romania and in southeast Europe at large. New onshore discoveries in Romania – which has been producing oil and gas for more than a hundred years – have become increas- ingly rare. Exploration work has focused instead in recent years on its Black Sea shelf, leading to a series of new nds.
Week 40 10•October•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P9
