Romgaz, ready to take over offshore drilling project amid unexpectedly high interest of banks

Romgaz is ready to take over ExxonMobil's share in the Neptun Deep Black Sea offshore natural gas project, and funding that will be a mix of equity and raised money, Romgaz Director General Aristotle Jude told a news conference on Tuesday.

"On March 31, we submitted an offer to take over ExxonMobil's share in the Neptun Deep block. The procedure is carried out by an intermediary bank and we are waiting for the answer as soon as possible. If our bid is considered attractive, we will negotiate the contract to take over," Jude said.

"Romgaz is ready to provide, through a consortium of banks, the necessary funds for this project. So, we will provide both our own sources and raised funds, conditional of course, upon our bid being accepted," added Jude.

He said that he had also talked with OMV Petrom and that there were no problems with the collaboration between the two companies.

Currently, ExxonMobil and OMV Petrom are equal partners in the deepwater Neptun Deep project, where exploration has revealed deposits estimated at 42-84 billion cubic metres. For comparison, Romania produced 9.2 billion cubic metres in 2020.

ExxonMobil has announced weighing an exit from Romania, and Romgaz has submitted an offer to take over the US company's stake. In their turn, OMV Petrom executives announced that next year they will take the decision to invest or not in this project, depending on legislative changes.