Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and Georgian Economy Minister Natia Turnava met with the Heads of the largest Eastern European oil company OMV Petrom S.A. on Wednesday.

After the meeting, the Georgian Economy Ministry and OMV Petrom S.A. signed an agreement on extraction, collection, acquisition, and processing of geological and geophysical data for oil and gas extraction in the course of 25 years on the Black Sea’s continental shelf.

The Prime Minister emphasized that the Georgian Government welcomes cooperation with OMV Petrom-a subsidiary of OMV, which ranks among Europe’s top 10 oil companies and is ready to provide support toward the project’s successful implementation.

According to the Head of Government, the entry of such a large company reaffirms that Georgia’s business environment, including in the area of oil and gas extraction, is transparent and appealing to world-class oil giants.

The State Agency for Oil and Gas LEPL at the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development announced an open international competition for the general oil and gas license encompassing the Black Sea’s license blocks 2 and 3 in 2020. OMV Petrom SA, a member of the large Austrian oil group OMV, won the license to operate in block 2.

The company will carry out 2-D and 3-D seismic exploration works, and drilling will commence in the last phase of the project. The value of the drilling phase will depend on exploration results.

The value of a similar project involving the exploration of the Domino well by Austrian OMV in Romania’s territorial waters is 1.5 billion USD.

Exploration work on the Black Sea is underway in Turkey, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Ukraine. Exploration work has resulted in the discovery of large hydrocarbon wells in Romania and Ukraine. Bulgaria, where the company also operates, is close to a similar commercial discovery.