France’s Total gives up exploration of Bulgaria’s largest gas field

French multi-energy company TotalEnergies is withdrawing from oil and gas exploration in the potential Khan Asparuh field in northern Bulgarian waters of the Black Sea, an annual report by the project’s other partner, Romania’s OMV Petrom, quoted by Bulgarian Capital Weekly, reads.

“We continue to strengthen our position in the Black Sea. We have assumed the operator role and will continue the exploration activity in the perimeter of the Khan Asparuh field in Bulgaria,” OMV Petrom’s annual report states.

The Romanian OMV Petrom, which owns 43% of its shares, with the remaining 57% owned by TotalEnergies, has a permit to carry out exploration in Bulgaria. Studies began in 2012 and are expected to be completed by November 2024.

The Bulgarian field has an area of 14,220 square kilometres and is adjacent to the Romanian perimeter of the Neptune Deep field, where OMV plans to start producing gas in 2027.

The state-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding was given information from previous gas drillings, which show potential gas deposits between 210 and 510 billion cubic metres (bcm).

According to data published by TotalEnergies, there are two prospective gas fields in the northern Bulgarian economic zone in the Black Sea, called Vinekh and Krum. The first is expected to produce five bcm of gas per year between 2030 and 2040, and the second eight bcm between 2031 and 2044.

This is much more than the annual gas consumption of the Bulgarian economy, which is three billion cubic metres per year.

After 2044, production will drop to three and four bcm from each of the two fields by 2050.

The required investment in a gas well is between $80 and $100 million, and upon proving a commercial discovery, the necessary investments for developing the field are between €4 billion and €8 billion.

(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)

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