“I am very optimistic because things are happening like I dreamt they would. Projects in the Black Sea are starting. We have such projects as BRHA (Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary-Austria natural gas transport corridor) and the exploration of ExxonMobil,” says Gabriel Comanescu, the owner of offshore drilling and construction company Grup Servicii Petroliere, a 934 million lei (EUR209 million) business. The company has eight offshore rigs and a fleet of construction vessels.
“There will be four very busy years for the Black Sea in 2017-2020 and we are in pole position for those contracts. These are troubled times, geopolitics-wise, but we are lucky to have the Americans.”
OMV Petrom, for instance, which works in partnership with US-held ExxonMobil, said the natural gas from the Neptun block in the Black Sea might first reach the shore towards the end of the decade.
Until then, Comanescu has already won a contract for an undisclosed sum in Nigeria, which is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
“We will enter into a contract for offshore construction and drilling of gas in Nigeria. The contract value is confidential but is higher than that of the contract with Gazprom. We also have an offshore construction contract in Egypt. The contract in Nigeria is one of the biggest in Africa at the moment. We competed with the industry’s heavyweights but the advantage of working with a company like ours is the lack of red tape.”
Comanescu did not say what company commissioned the project, which may become a milestone for Grup Servicii Petroliere. Back in 2009, GSP won a $270 million contract with Russia’s Gazprom to build a 159-kilometer pipeline offshore.
“We went through a time of constant cutbacks but we will start hiring again to fulfil our contracts. We will be hiring a lot of people next year.”
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)