Natural gas reserves in Georgia’s Black Sea shelf and exploration works planned by OMV Petrom, the largest energy company in Southern and Eastern Europe, were discussed at a meeting between Levan Davitashvili, Georgia’s Economy Minister, and the company delegation on Wednesday.
The importance of the Austrian-Romanian oil and gas company’s project for three-dimensional seismic exploration of the shelf was noted during the meeting, along with the existence of “significant reserves” of natural gas in the area.
Following the exploration works planned for the upcoming year, OMV Petrom will launch drilling as part of the next stage of the Georgian project worth $30 million.
Davitashvili said “intensive work” was currently underway with the State Agency of Oil and Gas to ensure potential gas supplies were explored to obtain and use the resources in the “best interests” of the country.
Along with the extraction project, the oil company is also aiming to implement exchange programmes for students of Georgian higher education institutions starting next year.
OMV Petrom and the State Agency of Oil and Gas of Georgia signed an agreement on extracting oil and gas from the shelf of Georgia’s Black Sea waters in March last year.
The extraction project by one of the ten largest oil companies in Europe will see Georgia join the countries where oil and gas exploration in the shelf is underway, the Economy Ministry said.