Australian oil and gas company Beach Energy has announced a 30 percent participation in an offshore Romanian oil and gas exploration block. The firm expects to invest just under USD 25 million in the first three years of the project in the Black Sea Est Cobalcescu block, which lies around 150 km east of Romanian port city Constanta. Beach Energy joins two other companies in the project – Melrose Resources and Petromar. The venture is awaiting approval by the Romanian government, but if all goes to plan, the concession will be for a 10 year exploration phase and a 30 year production phase.
Hopes are high for the exploration block, which lies next to the Exxon-Mobil deep-water block, where a potential reserve of 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas was discovered this year. Beach Energy also cites the Romanian government’s policies on oil and gas exploration as a motive for participating.
“Beach continues its focused strategy of growing the business through partnerships that offer the potential for significant oil and gas discoveries, whether in Australia or overseas. The Romanian Joint Venture with Melrose and Petromar has this potential and is supported by an attractive fiscal regime and strong European gas prices,” said Beach Energy Managing Director Reg Nelson.
A 3D seismic survey of 1000 km2 will be carried out, after results from a 2D seismic survey pointed to 6 oil leads and 12 gas leads, according to the company.
Beach Energy is an oil and gas exploration and production company based in Adelaide, Australia. According to company data, Beach Energy currently has oil and gas reserves of 92.8 million barrels of oil equivalent and contingent resources of 466.6 million barrels of oil equivalent. The company estimates 7.5 million barrels of oil equivalent production in 2012. Melrose Resources is a UK listed oil and gas exploration, development and production company with core assets in North Africa and Eastern Europe. Petromar is another oil and gas company with international operations, originally founded in Angola, Africa in 1984.
Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com
photo source: sxc.hu