OMV Petrom and ExxonMobil have given up on the oil concession Midia Deep in the Black Sea, taken over from Sterling Resources in 2014. The consortium will focus on the main project of the Romanian offshore, respectively Neptun Deep area, for which the two companies spent USD 1.5 billion starting 2008. For the Neptun block, the companies are reviewing the gas discoveries and are expected to say if they will start commercial exploitation or not.
The decision to withdraw from Midia Deep was requested by the owners of OMV Petrom and ExxonMobil after the companies did not find viable resources here.
The first exploitation contract that included Midia Deep was signed in 1992, between Rompetrol, owned at that time by the Romanian state and the consortium formed by the British firm Enterprise Oil Exploration and the Canadian firm Canadianoxy Ltd. The contract was approved by the Stolojan Government. The partners of the Romanian state on this oil agreement for Pelian and Midia, that Midia Dep is part of, changed over time trough right and shares transfers, so that in 2009 the only shareholder of the contract was the Canadian company Sterling Resources.
Afterwards the Canadian kept 65 percent of the rest of the firms Petro Ventures Europe (20 percent) and Gas Plus (15 percent), according to profit.ro.