Exploration drill for oil and gas off Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast starts in April

On April 1, Royal Dutch Shell company starts the deepwater exploratory drilling for oil and gas in a block off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, the company said on 26^th of March.

The decision came after the preliminary seismic analysis showed great potential in the Khan Kubrat block, located in Bulgaria's maritime economic zone.

The drilling will take place at a point 80 km from the sea shore, will last for 90 days, south of Bulgaria’s coastal city of Bourgas, at a depth of one and a half kilometres. A special ship will be used for the purpose, equipped with state-of-the-art rtechnologies environmentally friendly for the marine fauna.

Alexander Kays, Project Manager of Research Activities: We have installed a technology called managed-pressure drilling on the ship. This is a relatively new approach in deep-water drilling, although it is widely used on land.

The seabed will be drilled using a drilling head mounted on a rotating rod system that will crush the rocks into small pieces. Steel pipes will be placed in the borehole and will be cemented in place.

250 people will be working on the drilling rig. The cost of drilling will be between $ 50 and $ 150 million.

Jan Deknatel, Director of Research Activities at the Western Black Sea Coast in “Shell” explained that research data must ensure that at least 75,000 barrels per day are produced in order for any company to take a final decision for extraction and to get back the investments made.

If oil and gas are found, it may take between 5 and 8 years to assess the real potential of the deposit and if industrial production starts, it can last for over 20 years.