Romania discusses CCS with ExxonMobil
Romania's energy minister Virgil Popescu said on June 16 he had held talks with representatives of ExxonMobil's Romanian arm on cooperation in the field of carbon capture and storage (CCS).
Popescu said on his Facebook page that he viewed ExxonMobil as "a leader in carbon capture technology. We also had an exchange of views on Black Sea gas and the legislative framework in the field of energy."
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ExxonMobil earlier this year proposed a $100bn CCS project to capture emissions from US petrochemical and refining plants and store them under the Gulf of Mexico. It is expected to store up to 50mn metric tons/year of CO2 by 2030 and double that amount by 2040, but ExxonMobil says the project will need support from other companies and the government.
In Romania, ExxonMobil is partnered with Austro-Romanian firm OMV Petrom at the 84bn-m3 Neptun Deep discovery. But the partners say the government in Bucharest has not provided the right investment conditions for them to sanction its development.
Frustrated with delays at Neptun Deep and as part of a broader strategy that will see its complete departure from the European upstream sector, ExxonMobil is in talks to sell its 50% interest in the Romanian field to state-owned Romgaz.