Woodside Farms into Bulgaria Offshore

Woodside has farmed into a Shell-operated block in Bulgaria's part of the Black Sea, the Australian firm said in its 1H report August 15.

Woodside in July 2018 entered into a farm-in agreement with Shell's Italian upstream subsidiary to acquire a 30% non-operated participating interest in Block 1-14 Khan Kubrat, located offshore Bulgaria in the Black Sea. "This opportunity targets an emerging oil and gas province close to existing infrastructure and markets; planning is in progress to drill an exploration well in Q2 2019," said Woodside.  

Timing of the planned well has slipped: Shell said at the start of this year it planned to drill this first well in late 2018 or early 2019. The block, awarded 2016, is named after a 7th century ruler of Bulgaria.

Woodside Energy (Bulgaria) Limited was incorporated July 24 2018 and is a wholly owned subsidiary incorporated in England and Wales, the report added.

OMV-Petrom with ExxonMobil and separately Black Sea Oil & Gas have deepwater gas projects pending development offshore Romania, while Total made an oil discovery in 2016 on its Khan Aspurah licence offshore Bulgaria but has yet to develop it.