Exxon Awards Romanian Neptun Work
ExxonMobil has awarded a multi-year contract to OneSubsea UK and Cameron Romania to supply subsea equipment, associated components and services to the Neptun Deep gas development project, without disclosing contract value or any other details. OneSubsea and Cameron are subsidiaries of US-French oil services giant Schlumberger.
Neptun Deep is in the deepwater Romanian section of the Black Sea and owned equally by the US supermajor and OMV Petrom. As neither Exxon nor OMV has publicly announced a final investment decision (FID) on Neptun, the contract is understood to be subject to the duo taking FID.
OMV CEO Rainer Seele said in September 2017: “In second half 2018 we shall need to decide on development, but we must decide on how we will market the gas.” Hungary’s refusal to build its section of the BRUA pipeline, intended to take Black Sea gas into central Europe, could have implications for how OMV and ExxonMobil market their deepwater Neptun gas reserves, said Seele. The two companies had previously targeted start-up of Neptun Deep in 2020. Its reserves are between 1.5 and 3 trillion ft3 (42bn to 84bn m3).
Hungary is unlikely to reverse that refusal, following the re-election of conservative Fidesz party leader Viktor Orban as prime minister earlier this month.