Romania Black Sea exploration basin

The Romanian sector of the Black Sea basin is the most explored part of the basin and hosts the giant ExxonMobil-operated Neptun Deep project and LUKOIL's Lira discovery.Offshore exploration has largely underwhelmed since the Neptun Deep discoveries in 2012, with five dry holes since the 2015 Lira discovery. However, the discovery of the multi-tcf Sakarya and North Sakarya fields in Turkish waters in 2020/2021, 100 metres to the south of the Neptun Deep development, has spiked interest in the area. Their Miocene-Pliocene sands are analogous with the Neptun Deep fields. Constant fiscal and regulatory changes makes Romania one of the most unstable fiscal regimes in Europe but recent changes in 2020 look to address this.