“It is a historic moment for the Romanian energy industry…It is the first new natural gas exploitation project in the Romanian Black Sea area in the last 30 years. The first quantities of gas have already been introduced into the domestic market this month,” the prime minister said.
“Romania is … taking a decisive step in guaranteeing energy security,” he said, adding that this project will generate 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year and will help the country to cover 90 percent of its consumption needs.
The Midia project consists of five producing wells some 120 km offshore Romania, where the water depths are of 70 meters. When fully put into production, the project can provide 10 percent of the national gas demand.
Romania has recently changed its offshore oil and gas laws to encourage more investment scrapping existing requirements for a 40 percent domestic-supply set-aside and a high offshore production tax rate.
The Black Sea nation has estimated offshore gas reserves of about 200 bcm, badly needed now that the European market is struggling to wean itself off Russian energy.
Romania wants to export Black Sea Gas to region, with Moldova a priority
