RSS
Gehrig Schultz (Prospectiuni): Romania has huge potential in oil, gas and minerals field
Romania has a huge potential for the discovery of new deposits of oil and gas, but also other mineral resources such as gold, silver, lead and copper, said Gehrig Schultz, CEO of the Prospectiuni Co, in an interview given to AGERPRES .
He said that Romania is much better placed than other European countries in this respect. There are gold deposits throughout the Apuseni Mountains ( west ) and copper resources are higher than in Poland, where a giant mining complex was recently opened.
As concerns the oil and gas sector, there are still many conventional deposits from where extraction can be made before moving to unconventional ones. Schultz believes that the debate in the public space on use of hydraulic fracturing for the extraction of shale gas must take place after having determined whether or not such reserves exist in Romania. He stressed that in the exploration stage no fracture is used, but admitted that this technique can cause earthquakes and gas infiltration into the groundwater.
Gehrig Schultz mentioned that the soil seismic research began in Romania in the 1930s. 'Romania had one of the first research teams in the world in this field and, here, there is one of the earliest seismic maps. Romanians, over time, invented equipment such as those that prevent explosions, others used in refining and all kinds of innovative technologies', he reminds. Currently, in what concerns the technological development, much has changed, says the CEO of Prospectiuni Co. 'A large part of technology relies now on software and Romanians are very present in this sector. There are Romanians in all major universities in the world, working in geophysics, there are Romanian entrepreneurs who have started businesses in the field. So, I would say that Romania is very well represented in the field of development of high technology, which has gone from construction equipment to that of software', he added.
Markets, where Prospectiuni Co. is present, are Europe, North Africa, West Africa and Central Asia.
'What we actually do is to use physics to see what exists inside the Earth. The Earth has many features that we can use to see what's inside without having to drill a well or a mine. For instance, we examine water composition to see what minerals are in that area or, as we do in Africa, take samples from termite mounds, which bring up sand from the underground. In these samples we can detect if there are gold, silver, all kinds of things. Also, we make measurements of Earth's magnetic field. For example, if there is a deposit of iron, the Earth's magnetic field shows modifications', Gehrig Schultz explained.
Prospectiuni, part of the Tender group of companies, is a provider of geological and geo-technical services, that is active for over 60 years in the Romanian industry of oil and gas. The company last year had sales of 72 million euros and plans to grow its business to 83 million euros this year and to 140 million euros in 2016.
'We expect the Romanian market to be very active in the period 2014-2015. We will also continue to expand outside the country, in Morocco and in Georgia. At the same time, negotiations are under way for several contracts in Central Asia and in East Africa. We also started a new business, data collection including from existing wells, to better understand what potential the respective well still has. We started this new business this year, we still do not have all the necessary equipment, but this segment could account for 20 percent of our work in time', Gehrig Schultz concluded.