Petrom, Equinor strike gas in Europe

OMV Petrom has discovered gas onshore Romania while Equinor has made a minor find offshore Norway, Petrom and the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate announced separately on Thursday.

Well 4317 Mamu, drilled in the mature Mamu field in southwestern Romania, started producing at an initial rate of 190,000 cubic metres (6.71 mcf) per day, Petrom said.

Meanwhile, wildcat 7324/3-1 in licence 615 in the Barents Sea encountered a 30-metre gas column “of primarily moderate to poor reservoir quality” as well as smaller finds in two secondary targets, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said in a statement.

“Preliminary calculations of the size of the discovery in the upper part of the Snadd formation are between 10 [billion] and 20 billion standard cubic metres [353 bcf-706 bcf] of recoverable gas,” the directorate added.

“In the lower part of the Snadd formation, the gas volume is estimated at between 1 and 4 billion standard cubic metres [35.3 bcf-70.6 bcf] of recoverable gas. The discovery’s profitability is currently unclear.”

The news came a day after Equinor announced the start of construction of the Johan Castberg FPSO, projected to start production at the eponymous field in 2022.