"The Georgian government is open to business investments and understands the strategic importance of the Black Sea perfectly well," OMV Petrom SA CEO Christina Verchere said after the meeting with Georgian PM Irakli Gharibashvili.
"We at the OMV Petrom corporation can see the Black Sea's great potential for local and regional economic growth and wellbeing. We look forward to starting the oil extraction activities in the Georgian Black Sea region, which we deem a natural continuation of the regional expansion of our corporate activities. Our corporation has more than 40 years of experience in Iran's sea area, and we consider this as our strong point," Verchere declared.
Earlier today, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili, together with Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Natia Turnava, met with those at the helm of the OMV Petrom SA OIL Company, which will carry out oil and gas extraction efforts in Georgia. The corresponding oil and gas extraction contract has already been concluded between the two parties.
At the meeting with the Administration of the Government, they made a reference to the significance of the project and stressed that Georgia would soon join the list of the countries where oil and gas exploration and extraction efforts are made on shelf areas.
The project provides for obtaining, purchasing, and processing the geological and geophysical data for 25 years on the continental shelf (5,282 km2) of Georgian Black Sea waters for the purposes of extracting oil and gas there.
OMV Petrom is the largest integrated energy company in Southeast Europe, with an annual group hydrocarbon production of 53 million boe in 2020. The group has a refining capacity of 4.5 million tons annually and operates an 860 MW high efficiency power plant. It is present on the oil products retail market in Romania and neighboring countries through 793 filling stations, at the end of 2020, under two brands – OMV and Petrom.
The discovery of The Domino gas field, costs USD 1.5 bln. Exploration efforts are currently underway in the following Black Sea basin countries: Russia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, and Ukraine.
