OMV Petrom, which remained the sole operator of the Khan Asparuh exploration project in the Black Sea, is looking for a new partner. This became clear after a meeting of the Acting Minister of Energy Vladimir Malinov with representatives of the company.
A month ago, Romanian media reported that Franch company TotalEnergies was withdrawing from the project. The company was granted the right to explore the block in 2012, but after the initial oil discovery there were no further reports of success. In the fall of 2023, the company presented to the National Assembly its expectations for large gas deposits and offered a share to the state.
The MPs assigned the Ministry of Energy to examine the possibility of the state-owned “Bulgarian Energy Holding” (BEH) participating in the project. The Minister of Energy Rumen Radev announced a little later that the procedure was being frozen because the representatives of the holding did not have access to key information.