It is estimated to have a capacity of 42 to 84 billion cubic meters, tantamount to three to six years worth of annual domestic consumption. The discovery was made as part of the first effort of deep sea prospecting in the Romanian continental shelf, which started late last year. Romanian president Traian Basescu went on a visit Monday to the Deepwater Champion, the deep sea drilling ship belonging to ExxonMobil. Here is what he said:

“It is clear that Romania can become total energy self-reliant, and if the other pockets in the Neptun resort area, the four or five that are next in line to be prospected, indicate similar quantities, then Romania may be one of the natural gas sources not only for itself, but also for many other countries in Europe”.

When may the discovery bear fruit? Traian Basescu said that Romanians should not expect the natural gas to start being extracted right away, because the site bears prospecting. He said that extraction could be expected between 2015 to 2017. According to data released by OMV Petrom, the Romanian natural gas market went up last year by 3%, reaching a capacity of 14.2 billion cubic meters. In 2011, Petrom extracted 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas. The other large domestic producer in Romania, the state-owned company Romgaz, produces gas in quantities comparable to Petrom. Domestic consumption is covered by the output produced by the Petrom and Romgaz, completed by imports from Russia.

Romania’s secure natural gas reserves are estimated to cover consumption for the next 15 years, according to a statement made in October 2011 by the president of the National Agency for Mineral Resources, Alexandru Patruti. At the same time, Romania is a partner in the Nabucco gas pipeline project, which is meant to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian gas imports. Work on the pipeline is scheduled to start in 2013. Nabucco will carry gas form the Caspian region via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to Western Europe, sidestepping Russia.