German oil and gas company Wintershall AG, part of the petrochemical giant BASF, is willing to invest some $50 million in building an underground storage facility for natural gas close to Medias, with a capacity of about one billion cubic metres, stated Reinier Zwitserloot, chairman of the German company. Wintershall, with an annual transaction volume worth more than 300 million euros, conducted through gas trading companies Wirom Gas and WIEE Romania, is running investment projects in excess of 150 million dollars on the Romanian market.
“Wintershall wants to include in its portfolio operations for each and every segment of the Romanian gas market: imports, production, storage and distribution. The company is considering a technology transfer to Romania to turn some depleted gas resources into deposits,” Reinier Zwitserloot told Ziarul Financiar, explaining the group’s strategy aimed at the Romanian market. On the gas production segment, the German operator will kick-start operations in a month at the gas deposits near Sighisoara. The company is also interested in expanding its exploration and production projects to perimeters in central and eastern Romania, with a view to producing natural gas.
Wintershall and Romgaz jointly develop operations in the Transilvania Sud block, where gas production is about to be launched. In fact, Wintershall is the only foreign company to have managed to uncover gas deposits on the Romanian market since 1990, whereas international companies have unsuccessfully invested over 212 million dollars in exploration operations.
Wintershall will thus operate directly on the Romanian market through its Medias-based branch. This way, the Germans will become the second-largest foreign private gas producer in Romania, after US-based Amromco, which has already produced 100 million cubic metres of gas through the rehabilitation of some gas fields that were almost used up.
“As for distribution, Wintershall signed an agreement with Distrigaz Sud. The agreement points to the establishment of four gas distribution outlets in locations along the Danube – Turnu Magurele, Oltenita, Alexandria and Giurgiu,” says the Wintershall representative. adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro