The Midia Gas Development (MGD) project involves the Ana and Doina discoveries, located in the XV Midia Shallow block in the Romanian Black Sea.

The sites are being developed by a fully-owned subsidiary of Carlyle International Energy Partners (CIEP) known as Black Sea Oil & Gas (BSOG, 65%) in cooperation with Gas Plus International (15%) and Petro Ventures Europe (20%). BSOG is acting as the operator of the project.

The project is estimated to cost $400m and the final investment decision was executed in February 2019. Construction is underway, with completion scheduled for Q1 2021.

Geology and reserves of the Ana and Doina gas fields

The XV Midia shallow block is located in the Histria Basin, covering an area of 1,900km² in the continental self of Romanian Black Sea.

Ana and Doina gas field reservoirs are both of the same fault trend and belong to the Miocene to Dacian age. The field reservoirs are made of shallow marine sandstones.

The fields’ gross contingent resources are estimated to be 320 billion cubic feet (bcf).

Doina and Ana gas fields discovery and appraisal

The Doina gas field was originally discovered in 1995, and has been appraised by the Doina-2, Doina-3 and Doina-4 wells.

Doina-2 was tested and flowed at the rate of 17.5MMscf/d before being suspended with an option for re-entry in future.

The Doina-4 well was drilled in 2008 to a depth of 1,250m using an open-hole logging method. The well confirmed the presence of a gas-bearing Doina Main Sand reservoir similar to previous wells.

It encountered a number of gas-bearing intervals around the reservoir, including a 12m interval of high-quality reservoir sands with a porosity of more than 30%.

Ana gas field was discovered in 2007 by the Ana-1 discovery well, which was tested in 2008, resulting in a flow rate of 19.2MMscf/d.

Ana was appraised by the Ana-2 well, drilled in September 2008. The well encountered gas within the Doina Main Sand Formation at 1,121m.

The reservoir contained a 39m gas column with a net pay of 23m in high-quality reservoir sands, with a porosity level of up to 32%. The well also encountered a 5m gas-bearing reservoir in a shallower horizon at 766m, which has been suspended with an option for re-entry at a later date.

The MGD project comprises five production wells, including four platform wells at the Ana field and a subsea well at the Doina field. The Midia Shallow block, in addition to the Ana and Doina gas fields, contains a number of other prospects and deeper exploration potential.

Black Sea Oil has contracted the GSP Uranus offshore drilling rig to further explore the area’s potential.

Development plan for the Midia gas project

Plans outlined for the Midia Gas Development (MGD) project include the design and construction of an offshore platform to produce gas from the two fields, in addition to offshore and onshore pipelines, drill/development wells and a gas treatment plant.

A well-head platform (jacket) will be constructed close to the Ana field at a water depth of 69.5m. It will also support production for the Doina subsea well, which will be connected to the platform through an 18km in-field pipeline.

Another 121km offshore pipeline will be laid from the Ana platform to the shore to facilitate the transportation of gas.

Gas produced at the plant will be sent to a gas treatment plant (GTP) through a 4.1km underground pipeline, which is under construction in the Vadu area.

The plant will be connected to a Transgaz-operated national transmission system (NTS) via a 25km-long onshore pipeline.

Contractors involved

GC Rieber Shipping provided support for the seismic survey of the XV Midia block.

Xodus Group was awarded the front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract for the MSD project. An Engineering, procurement, construction, installation & commissioning (EPCIC) contract was granted to GSP Offshore.

ENGIE signed a 10-year gas sales agreement with BSOG to purchase all gas produced from the Midia gas project.

BSOG executed a 15-year gas transmission contract with Transgaz for the transmission of gas from the MGD project to NTS.