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“I would like to reiterate our call to next year but it expects the new parliament construction phase of the Seagull tie-back
establish dialogue and cooperation with after the general elections in December to project, which is located in the UK North Sea.
coastal states in the Mediterranean,” Erdogan radically change the Offshore Law. Neptune Energy sanctioned the Seagull
added. “So we are proposing the holding of “For the Black Sea projects to take off, it project back in March 2019.
a regional conference where the rights and is absolutely necessary that all the legislation According to information on Neptune’s
interests of all coastal states are taken into that is hostile to the investors in offshore website, first oil from the project is expected
consideration, and where Turkish Cypriots oil fields, adopted in 2018, disappears in 2022.
are present too.” completely,” said Mark Beacon, CEO of In an update on September 22, Neptune
BSOG. said that TechnipFMC, working under the
He said that the law on supplementary Neptune Energy Alliance Agreement, has
MOL issues €100mn of taxes is not sustainable and “will kill the deployed the Apache II pipelay vessel to
[offshore] industry”, adding that he told
start the pipe-in-pipe installation, laying
bonds the company’s shareholders not to worry approximately 5km of pipe connecting the
Egret manifold to the Seagull development.
and move on with the investments because
Hungarian oil and gas company MOL issued the law will be amended before production Neptune Energy’s UK Managing Director,
HUF36.6bn (€101mn) of bonds in the starts. Alexandra Thomas, said that Seagull is
framework of the Bond Funding for Growth The company, controlled by US group expected to produce 50,000 boe per day
Scheme (BGS) of the Hungarian National Carlyle, is ready to start production at its (gross) and supports UK security of supply.
Bank (MNB), it was announced on September Midia gas project in the Romanian Black Sea
18. The ten-year bond with a. 1.1% coupon next year.
was sold at a yield of 1.697%, 6bp over mid- BSOG and oil service company GSP Aker BP hires Odfjell rig for
swaps. MOL said it had achieved “highly Offshore, controlled by local businessman
competitive financing conditions” with the Gabriel Comanescu, organised an event Norwegian work
transaction. to mark the start another stage of the
Last year CEE’s leading oil and gas construction works. They invited Orban, the Oil and gas company Aker BP has awarded
company issued HUF28.4bn under the head of the ruling Liberal Party, to the event. further work to the Odfjell Drilling-owned
same programme. The ten-year bonds with The event took place several days after Deepsea Stavanger rig, scheduled to be done
a 2% annual coupon were sold at a yield of Orban made ambiguous statements about upon the rig’s return from a gig in South
1.9055%, 73bp over mid-swaps. the opportunity to quickly amend the Africa with Total.
The central bank launched the BGS in the Offshore Law and address the requests of Aker BP and Odfjell Drilling have signed
spring of 2019 to beef up Hungary’s relatively the oil companies involved in such projects. a contract that commits further work to
small corporate bond market. The allocation In a later comment, Orban explained that a Deepsea Stavanger under the existing frame
for the scheme was raised from HUF300bn more robust majority is needed in parliament agreement, the rig owner said in an update
to HUF450bn. for amending such an important piece of on September 21.
Under the programme, the MNB can legislation. The initial contract scope is five wells
purchase three-, 10- and 20-year forint- The BSOG CEO said that he is not asking and has an estimated contract value of up to
denominated bonds issued by non-financial for a preferential regime for the company he $44mn, plus incentives.
corporations with a minimum of B+ rating. heads, nor preferential treatment compared The contract is set to start latest by end
The programme limits the MNB’s to other industries. of Q3 2021, back-to-back with Deepsea
purchases to 70% of a series and caps “What we want is a warm welcome as Stavanger’s return from South Africa.
its exposure to any corporate group at a member of Romania’s winning team,” Namely, the Deepsea Stavanger is
HUF50bn. Beacom said, explaining that the competition currently under contract with French oil
MOL intends to introduce the bonds in for extracting the Black Sea’s natural gas major Total, working on the Luiperd-1X
the XBond trading platform of the Budapest is fierce, but the country possesses all the well, the second exploration well on Block
Stock Exchange. necessary strengths and qualities to win it. 11B/12B offshore South Africa following the
The MNB noted that Hungary’s Gabriel Comanescu, the owner of Brulpadda discovery in February 2019.
corporate bond market lags behind those GSP Offshore, said that the Midia Gas The well was spud in late August 2020
in the eurozone and in other countries in Development (MGD) project could start following the rig’s arrival from Norway to
the region. The share of corporate bond production in mid-2021. South Africa.
financing stands at 1.5% of the GDP, a The project is less technically demanding Block 11B/12B is located in the Outeniqua
fraction of Polish or Czech figures. because it is located in shallow water (as Basin 175 kilometres off the southern coast
opposed to Neptun Deep developed by OMV of South Africa. The block covers an area
Petrom and ExxonMobil). The gas field is of approximately 19,000 square kilometres
BSOG wants “fair taxation” expected to produce some 1bn cubic metres with water depths ranging from 200 to 1,800
meters.
(bcm) per year or 10 bcm over its lifespan
before starting offshore estimated at 10-15 years. For comparison, expected to be completed in the fourth
Drilling and evaluation of the well are
Romania’s gas consumption has decreased
production in Romania over the last decade from 13 bcm to 10 bcm quarter of 2020.
per year...
The US oil company Black Sea Oil & Gas
(BSOG) stressed again, in a meeting with the
Romanian Prime Minister Ludovic Orban Neptune takes next step at
attended by the US ambassador Adrian
Zuckerman, that it needs “fair taxation” to Seagull project
start production at its Midia offshore project.
The company has not interrupted Neptune Energy and its joint venture partners
investments and is ready to begin production BP and JAPEX have started the subsea

P20 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 38 24•September•2020