Chevron to exit Romania

Newsroom 23/02/2015 | 13:58

Following the announcement made by Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal on Friday evening that Chevron Corp. is to exit Romania, the US giant’s representatives confirmed the company will abandon the local shale gas exploitation projects.

Chevron decision to quit searching Romania’s shale fields this year comes after abandoning Polish and Ukrainian prospects in 2014, according to Bloomberg.

“In 2014, Chevron Romania concluded exploitation in Barlad concession and a 2-D geophysical study conducted in two of the three concessions in the Dobrogea region. Chevron Romania confirms its intention to abandon its plans for these concessions 2015,” the company’s representatives told Mediafax.

They added that it was a business decision made after the evaluation of the project in Romania, which cannot favorably compete at the moment with other investment opportunities in Chevron’s global portfolio.

“The results of the works in Romania will be passed to the National Agency for Mineral Resources and will remain in state’s custody. The confidentiality of such information is maintained in compliance with Romania’ laws,” added Chevron representatives.

Chevron concluded in July 2014 the exploitation activities at the first well in Romania, in Silistea-Pungesti, Vaslui County, after two months of drilling at 3.000 meters depths. Aside from Vaslui County, Chevron holds three concessions in southeastern Romania, near the Black Sea coast.

After Chevron received in October 2013 the authorization for the first well in Romania, located in Vaslui County, in Pungesti took place several violent protests of the locals.