Energy company OMV Petrom has announced the discovery of new crude oil and natural gas resources in southern Romania.

The discovered deposits in the Oltenia and Muntenia regions collectively contain about 30 million barrels of oil equivalent (mboe) of recoverable resources.

One of the discoveries, which is claimed to be the company’s “largest crude oil discovery in decades”, was made in the Oltenia region’s Verguleasa exploration area.

The Verguleasa discovery, which is anticipated to have crude oil deposits worth about 20mboe, is in the vicinity of another production area.

The second discovery was made in the Târgoviște exploration block, where it was determined that there were crude oil resources totalling an estimated 6mboe.

Preparation for the pre-exploitation work for the Târgoviște block is underway.

The third discovery was made in the Târgu Jiu exploration block, which is said to have 7mboe of natural gas reserves, representing more than one-third of Romania's natural gas output in 2022.

One follow-up well is already scheduled for the following year, and work on a tie-in is also underway.

The exploration drilling and testing of these three wells were done by OMV Petrom between June 2022 and April 2023.

The company has spent nearly €20m ($21.58m) on the project.

OMV Petrom executive board member Cristian Hubati said: "Romania has been producing crude oil and natural gas for over 150 years, and under these conditions, identifying new resources requires a significant effort.

“The new discoveries will contribute to reducing the decline of our production and to the continuity of the supply of essential products for the economy.”