Romanian oil and gas company Petrom and US ExxonMobil found a new gas accumulation in the Black Sea, after drilling a third exploration well, market sources say, cited by local Ziarul Financiar.

However, the two companies say that they are still evaluating the data that the Pelican South-1 well revealed.

Whereas sources place the recent discovery at around 20-25 billion of cubic meters, Petrom and ExxonMobil refuse this estimate.

By comparison, Romania had a gas consumption of about 12.5 billion of cubic meters in 2013.

If the two companies confirm the discovery, this could be estimated at about EUR 3.5 billion, according to Ziarul Financiar estimates.

At the end of 2008, Petrom and ExxonMobil signed an agreement to explore the deep waters of the Black Sea. At the beginning of 2012, the two companies found a 42-84 billion of cubic meters gas accumulation.

editor@romania-insider.com