The Romanian state-owned company Romgaz was offered to buy a fifty-percent stake in the project for developing the deposits of the deep-water block Neptune, which had previously belonged to one of the world’s largest oil and gas corporations, ExxonMobil.
The head of Romgaz, Adrian Volintiru, said that at present the Black Sea Neptune project belongs to ExxonMobil and the Romanian OMV Petrom. At the same time, Romgaz is still considering the possibility of acquiring no more than 20%, since the project is extremely expensive by the standards of Romania.
According to reports, ExxonMobil invested $ 750 million in the project, however, according to Reuters, the corporation estimated its share at only $ 250 million. It should be borne in mind that the development of deposits will require additional investments of $ 3 billion, which means that even a twenty percent share will require at least half a billion dollars from Romgaz.
It is worth noting that the American corporation is taking such actions against the background of the completion of the construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline. At the same time, the decision in ExxonMobil is associated with plans to participate in a number of new projects, because the company is selling assets, not only in Europe, but also in Africa and Asia.