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Brief history of the country
Romania borders the Black Sea and Moldova to the east, Bulgaria and Serbia to the south, and Hungary and Ukraine to the north.
Civilisations are recognised in the region from over 8,000 years ago. The region was inhabited by Thracians when overrun by the Romans in 101 AD and it then became the province of Dacia. After Rome left in 271, 3 principalities were slowly established. Transylvania became part of Hungary and Wallachia and Moldavia fell to the Ottomans in 1541.
The principalities united in 1859, naming themselves Romania in 1866, and finally gaining independence in 1877. Romania was stable until invasion by Austro-Hungary in World War 1 after which it was enlarged by treaty, including much of Transylvania. However, after initial growth democracy was steadily eroded during the 1930s.
In World War 2 resource-rich Romania was forced to become an ally of the Nazis. In 1944 a coup led it to switch sides but it remained occupied by the Soviets until the late 1950s, losing parts of its territory but regaining Northern Transylvania from Hungary.
In 1965 the autocratic Ceaușescu took power over the communist republic until a violent Revolution in 1989 led to his execution. Romania regained its democracy and established a market economy.
Following rapid economic growth Romania now has a service economy. It joined the EU in 2007.
Oil and gas summary
The Carpathian Mountains dominate the centre of Romania, with 14 mountain ranges reaching above 2,000m and the highest point at Moldoveanu Peak at 2,544m.
The mountains are surrounded by the Moldavian, Scythian and Moesian platforms to the east and south and the Pannonian Depression to the northwest. The Transylvanian Depression is surrounded by the Carpathian and the Apuseni Mountains. The Danube river forms most of the border with Serbia and Bulgaria, flowing into the Black Sea at the Danube delta.
Parts of the Carpathian Basin are the oldest oil producing regions in the world, where oil production began in 1857 on the Moesian platform and later in the Molasse and Flysch basins of the Carpathian foredeep. Major reservoirs are of upper Pliocene to lower Triassic age. Sandstone and limestone reservoirs are generally strongly folded and faulted, ranging from 100 to 4800m in depth and a thickness of a few meters to tens of meters.
Bucharest was the first capital in the world lit by kerosene. Output peaked in 1976 followed by steep decline. Slow decline is expected to continue.
Gas is mainly produced from the Pannonian and Transylvanian Basins with output peaking in 1983. Modest shale gas potential also exists onshore which may slow decline in the future.
Exploration in the Black Sea started in 1969 with the first discovery made in 1980 and production starting in 1987. The waters have several small oil fields in decline.
Deep water gas discoveries are due to be developed and there may be some further oil and gas potential remaining unexplored due to border disputes. Globalshift forecasts that new deep water gas fields will reverse offshore output decline.
ROMANIA
Map and National Flag
BUCHAREST
Fountain in boulevard
Eastern Europe
Capital
Population
Land area (sq kms)
Oil prod (000s b/d)
Gas prod (bcm/yr)
Oil cons (000s b/d)
Gas cons (bcm/yr)
Bucharest
21.5 mm
238,391
84
11.3
187
12
Government
Romania is a semi-presidential republic. The president is elected by popular vote for a maximum of two terms of 5 years and appoints the prime minister, who in turn appoints the Council of Ministers.
Parliament is bicameral. The 137-member Senate and 334-member Chamber of Deputies are both elected every 4 years.
Romania applied in 1993 for membership of the EU and became a full member in 2007.
The oil and gas industry is overseen by the Ministry of Energy including the Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE). Concession agreements are made with the National Agency for Mineral Resources.
The main producers are dominantly state-owned Romgaz and OMV Petrom. In 2004 Petrom was privatized by the Romanian state and sold to Austrian oil company OMV. It was the largest privatization deal in Romania's history.
ROMANIA: TECTONIC ELEMENTS
Globalshift.co.uk (source: Global CCS Institute)
History of Exploration
Oil was first used in the Roman province of Dacia (within Romanian territory) in around 200 AD. However, it was not until 1517 that oil occurrences were mentioned in Wallachia. In 1769 oil extraction was reported from Moldavia with the oil probably being collected from shallow hand-dug pits and ditches in outcropping rocks of the Carpathians.
Processing equipment was used in Lucacesti-Bacau from 1840 and a refinery was built by the Mehedinteanu brothers near Ploiesti in 1856, producing lamp oil for street lighting in Bucharest. The first commercial oil well was reportedly drilled in 1857 with production of around 2,000 bbls in that year, making Romania the first country with recorded oil production statistics (followed by the USA in 1859, Italy in 1860, Canada in 1862 and Russia in 1863).
The first deep, mechanical well was drilled in 1861 to a depth of 150m using wooden rods and auger bits. Production continued to grow through the 19th Century with the largest and most modern refinery in Europe built in 1896. In 1900 Romania was the third largest oil producer in the world with production at just over 5,000 bbls per day and the only country exporting gasoline.
In the early 20th Century a number of oil companies were created, supported by US and French capital and in 1907 The Romanian-American Company drilled the country’s first rotary well (Speranta-1). This was followed in 1908 by the first gas well at Sarmasel leading to the development of a BOP system and first gas production in 1913. A gas transmission pipeline from Sarmasel to Turda was built and in 1917 Turda became the first European town to be lit with natural gas.
World War I led to massive destruction of the oil fields of Ploiesti but after the war the industry continued to grow including production of oil in the Sarata Monteoru mine where 200 horizontal wells were drilled.
By 1927 1,566 oil wells were in production producing around 71,000 bbls per day. A gas compressor station had been installed at Sarmasel. Oil production reached a pre-World War 2 peak in 1936 and the country was fifth in the world in terms of exports.
After World War 2 the industry was nationalised and oil production slowly recovered reaching its absolute peak at just over 300,000 bbls per day in 1976 (including NGLs), from around 200 fields. Meanwhile gas production had also steadily increased to peak at around 38 bcm in 1983.
Offshore - After offshore exploration began in 1969 the first well in the Black Sea was Ovidiu East-1, drilled by a jackup in 84m of water in 1976. A discovery was made in 1980 and offshore oil production began in 1987 from the Lebada field. However, output from the Black Sea has never achieved more than 30,000 bbls per day.
Rapidly declining production through the late 1980s and 1990s and political reorganisation led to the establishment of the National Agency for Mineral Resources (NAMR) in 1995 and a new Petroleum Law. A National Oil Company (Petrom) was set up in 1997 but this was absorbed into the Austrian OMV Group in 2004.
The waters of the Black Sea have now 5 small oil fields in decline (Lebada Est, discovered in 1979, Lebada Vest, 1984, Sinoe, 1987, Pescarus, 1999, and Delta, 2007). Deep water gas discoveries are due to be developed and there may be some further unexplored oil and gas potential near the disputed border with Ukraine.