Adhoc announcement: ExxonMobil / OMV Petrom: Deep water gas discovery offshore Romania

ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Romania Limited (EMEPRL), an affiliate of ExxonMobil Corporation and OMV Petrom SA, the 51% subsidiary of OMV Aktiengesellschaft, today confirmed a potentially significant gas discovery offshore Romania.
Operated by ExxonMobil, the Domino-1 well is the first deep water exploration well offshore Romania and has a total depth of more than 3,000 meters below sea level. The Domino-1 well is located in the Neptun Block, 170 kilometers offshore in water approximately 930 meters deep.

The exploration well encountered 70.7 meters of net gas pay, resulting in a preliminary estimate for the accumulation ranging from 1.5 to 3 trillion cubic feet (42 to 84 billion cubic meters). Drilling operations started at year-end 2011 and are in the process to be finalized.

ExxonMobil and OMV plan new 3D seismic acquisition during 2012. The evaluation of the Domino-1 well results and the new seismic will determine next steps. It is too early in the data evaluation and exploration process to determine whether the Neptun block will ultimately prove to be commercially developable or not. However, should further work confirm the technical and commercial feasibility of deep water gas production from the Neptun block, further investment during both the exploration and development phases could reach several billion USD with the potential for first production towards the end of the decade at the earliest.