Rompetrol Is Looking for Deposits

Rompetrol is to invest up to 9 million USD in the following three years for exploring and exploiting two areas in Romania for which it has a license agreement with the National Agency for Mine Deposits (NAMD). The two areas measure approximately 1,800 square kilometers (Zegujani, in the South-West of Romania), and 3,000 square kilometers respectively, in the Satu-Mare region. The areas are the first ones owned by the company in our country, but they are to extend their activities in the Caspic region (where it is already present), in the Near East and North Africa, too, according to a company’s statement. Rompetrol has similar activities in Ecuador as well.

According to the company’s representatives, "the aggregates have a higher natural gas potential, but the researches up to now don’t exclude the possibility of several commercial petroleum deposits". The analysis based on the NAMD data indicates a potential between 10 and 50 million equivalent oil barrels. The computation procedure for assimilating to quantities of petroleum and natural gas is based on the "equivalent oil barrel".

THE STEPS OF THE PROJECT. For both of the areas, the initial exploring period is three years. In the first year there will be made geological and geophysical studies. In the second year, the results of the seismic recordings will be processed and explained. In the third year the field-development wells will appear. The agreements concern exploring, development and oil exploiting works. The investments value 2.5 million USD in Zegujani, and 6.5 million USD in Satu-Mare. The Rompetrol investments might increase up to 12 million USD if their profitability would be confirmed.

"We hope for quick commercial discoveries, basing ourselves on recoverable reserves of approximately 20 million oil barrels, as an average for the discovered structure", stated the Rompetrol vice-president, Bogdan Popescu, the chief of the company’s Upstream Division. (Adrian N. Ionescu)