Beach Energy ventures offshore Romania

Sept. 14, 2012
Beach Energy Ltd., Adelaide, has agreed to take a 30% interest in the offshore Est Cobalcescu block in the Black Sea offshore Romania and will form a joint venture with Melrose Resources PLC and Petromar Resources SA.

Beach Energy Ltd., Adelaide, has agreed to take a 30% interest in the offshore Est Cobalcescu block in the Black Sea offshore Romania and will form a joint venture with Melrose Resources PLC and Petromar Resources SA.

The move comes via Beach’s partnership with Melrose in the Mesaha permit in Egypt.

Beach is expected to spend $24.8 million during the first 3 years of the Romanian exploration program.

The 1,000 sq km block, which is governed by a 10-year exploration phase and a 30-year production phase, lies in 100 m of water and is next to the ExxonMobil Corp.-operated deepwater area where a major gas discovery was made earlier this year. Just to the east lie the 30 million bbl Olimpiskiyi field and the 270 million bbl Lebada field.

Beach says its move also is motivated by a renaissance in Romanian oil and gas exploration with attractive fiscal terms and strong European gas prices.

The country has produced some 4.4 billion bbl of oil and 27 tcf of gas.

The JV will begin with acquisition of 3D seismic data to follow up on 6 oil leads and 12 gas leads already identified by 2D seismic work.