Greenpeace Romania: Offshore gas exploitation threatens the Black Sea and its shores

Greenpeace Romania: Offshore gas exploitation threatens the Black Sea and its shores.

Greenpeace Romania activists claim that an offshore gas exploitation unveiled on Wednesday by OMV Petrom and Romgaz is "a new threat to the Black Sea and its shores."

"Life in the Black Sea is in danger! OMV Petrom and Romgaz have just announced that they are starting deep exploitation of fossil gas in the territorial waters of Romania. The decision is a catastrophic one for biodiversity, the environment and the Romanian Black Sea coast, as shown by dozens of similar exploitations. The pressure that the Neptun Deep project will have on marine habitats adds to the ecological problems the Black Sea already faces. Black Sea scientific collaboration projects and programmes such as EMBLAS, Connect Black Sea and MISIS Black Sea Marine Atlas have demonstrated that toxic and micro-plastic pollution, overfishing and invasive species are major challenges to life in the Black Sea. In addition, the Russian invasion of Ukraine poses serious threats to marine habitat due to war destruction, exploding sea mines, increased exposure to noise pollution, oil spills and other devastation caused by the conflict. Reports of the decimation of dolphins in the Black Sea and their migration south show a much greater impact on the marine environment than initially thought. Moreover, the recent destruction of the Kakhovka dam exposes the Black Sea to a new ecological disaster," reads a press statement released by the organisation on Wednesday, told Agerpres.

The proposed site for the construction of the onshore facilities of the Neptun Deep project is located south of the small town of Tuzla, Constanta County, in the immediate vicinity of the Costinesti tourist resort, where the nearest houses are located approximately 100 metres from the border of the area proposed for pipeline installation.

Greenpeace adds that, on the other hand, the development area of the Neptun Deep block is located in the western Black Sea, in the exclusive economic zone of Romania, 160 kilometres from the facilities on land.

"The sea infrastructure crosses several different and unique geomorphological units, including the Black Sea coast, platform and continental slope. The project intersects two Natura 2000 protected areas located on the Black Sea coast: the Natura Site 2000 Black Sea (ROSPA 0076), which will be under-crossed by the pipeline route on almost 2.5 km, and the Natura 2000 Marine Area Site at Capul Tuzla (ROSCI 0273), also under-crossed by the pipeline route on about 600 m. The execution plans of the tunnel and the pipeline near the shore will include the use of ships anchored within the Natura 2000 protected natural areas, with a negative impact due to damage to the habitat areas characteristic of the hard substrate (reefs)."