Regal Petroleum abandons hydrocarbon well in Romania

UK-based petroleum and gas company Regal Petroleum has given up one of the oil fields for which it holds an exploration licence in Barlad, Vaslui county, after drilling showed hydrocarbon reserves are not big enough to justify commercial operations. The second well drilling was intended for evaluating the volume of hydrocarbon reserves and the well was drilled to a total depth of 1,116 metres, shows a company release. Regal Petroleum announced in October that it would start drilling on two natural gas wells in the Barlad concession, which entails overall costs of 2.1 million dollars, and on a Suceava-based concession, managed in partnership with Aurelian Oil & Gas, based in London. Regal Petroleum has exploration, development and production activities in states such as Romania, Ukraine and Greece. Last year, the company posted business worth 10.8 million dollars, 3.4 times lower than in 2005, and turned a profit, worth 2.53 million dollars, against 1.25 million-dollar losses seen in the previous year.