Lukoil's drilling plans in the Black Sea of Romania are stymied by sanctions

Vantage Drilling, a company listed in Oslo, has cancelled a contract for drilling next year. Two industry sources said on Wednesday that the contract was with Russian oil major Lukoil to explore its Romanian Black Sea Trident discovery.

This cancellation comes just days after the company declared force majeure on its Iraqi oilfield, the company's prized asset abroad.

Vantage Drilling announced on 19 October that it had cancelled a contract of 260 days for its drillship Platinum Explorer without revealing the client or location. Three days earlier, Britain had imposed restrictions on Lukoil as well as Rosneft, another Russian oil company.

Vantage Drilling refused to directly comment on the two sources' claim that the contract was with Lukoil.

"Vantage terminated this contract because the sanctions applicable made its performance illegal," it said.

Lukoil has not responded to a comment request.

Along with Romanian state-owned Romgaz, the Russian company owns 85% of the Trident and Est Rapsodia block. After a six-year break, it has restarted the procedures for exploratory drilling to resume in 2026.

Romgaz has not responded to the request for comment.

Shell and OMV, among other energy companies, are trying to exploit the Trident discovery, which Lukoil claimed in 2015 contained at least 30 billion cubic metres of gas. They hope this will replace lost Russian gas with EU-produced gas.

(source: Reuters)