Oil and gas company Chevron has started exploring for shale gas in the Romanian village of Pungesti, months after facing disapproval from villagers and Romania environmental activists, some of which even turned violent on the site.

Five months after starting work on its drill, Chevron started the actual exploration activities, with support from the Romanian drilling company Dafora. The village of Pungesti is thus the first place in Romania where Chevron has started prospecting in order to find shale gas. Via drilling the company will extract rocks from underground, at around 4,000 meters, and analyze them in a lab, to establish whether natural gas is present, and how it can be extracted.

Work started after Chevron made all safety and performance checks, the company has said. Chevron underlined all activities will be safe for the environment, and protect underground waters as well. Water samples will be taken too before, during and after the entire drilling period, from four wells built on site, according to Chevron.

The entire drilling platform covers 20,200 sqm, and is located outside the villages Silistea and Pungesti in Vaslui county, in the Eastern region of Romania. The drilling system will use 35,000 liters of water a day, and all the water will come via a specialized company, and will not be taken from the underground waters.

Chevron has the state’s agreement to explore for shale gas in other regions of Romania - Paltinis - Bacesti, Popeni - Gagesti and Puiesti. The company recently got the green light to build another drilling platform for search for shale gas at Puiesti.

editor@romania-insider.com