Lukoil, PanAtlantic and Romgaz discovered a large deepwater gas field offshore Romania, a press release said Oct. 14. The field is in Trident Block (EX-30). It was discovered after the exploratory Lira 1X well was recently drilled.

Lukoil Overseas Atash BV is operator and there is a concession agreement with the Romanian government that was finalized, the press release said. Romgaz’s share in the project is 10%, Lukoil’s is 72% and PanAtlantic Petroleum Ltd.’s is 18%.

Water depth in the block ranges from 300 m to 1,200 m. The Lira-1X well is about 170 km from the coast. It was drilled to a 2,700 m total depth by TransOcean Development Driller II semisubmersible rig. The well was temporarily abandoned for further evaluation of the Lira gas discovery.

Seismic data indicated that the gas field’s area can reach up to 39 square km and that natural gas reserves could exceed 30Bcm.

In 2016, an exploration well will be drilled at Lira and seismic data will be reprocessed to confirm the size of the discovery and assess potential hydrocarbon reserves, the press release said.