Midia Gas Development Project, Black Sea

The Midia Gas Development (MGD) project comprises the development of the Ana and Doina discoveries, located in the XV Midia Shallow block of 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 also acting as the operator of the project.

Black Sea Oil is currently awaiting the development, environmental and construction approvals for the project, which are expected by the end of 2017.

The development phase will commence once these approvals are received, and will last for a minimum of two years.

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 appraisal 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 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 appraisal 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 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.

Geology and reserves of the Ana and Doina gas fields

The XV Midia block is located in the Histria Basin, covering an area of 1,900km² in the 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).

Development plan for the Midia gas project

Plans outlined for the Midia Gas Development (MGD) project includes 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 120km 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), which is due for construction in the Vadu area.

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

Contractors involved

Xodus Group was awarded the front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract for the MSD project.

It will engineer and design both the onshore and offshore infrastructure required for the development of the Ana and Doina gas fields, including the well-head platform, offshore and onshore pipelines, and gas treatment plant.