Researchers from Hungary’s oil and gas group MOL have discovered three new gas deposits in the country’s eastern plains near the Romanian border, financial news portal Portfolio reports.
The three new wells can meet the gas needs of up to 20,000 average family homes for a few years, according to a press release from MOL. The energy company launched its shallow gas program in 2019, targeting fields closer to the surface, with many of them typically small in size but requiring less investment and drilling to access. In recent years, 16 out of 18 wells have been successful, with shallow gas currently accounting for roughly 5 percent of the company’s 1.4 billion cubic meters of gas production in Hungary each year.
The new findings were made possible by a special evaluation of modern seismic measurements, which helps researchers obtain a more accurate picture of where there is a high probability of gas deep underground, MOL said.
The gas fields targeted by the drilling are located at shallower depths than usual, typically around 1,500 to 2,000 meters, hence the name of the program.
“The three new wells could contribute up to 750 barrels of gas equivalent per day to maintain Mol’s production of 32,000 barrels of gas and oil equivalent per day in Hungary, which equates to about 44 million cubic meters of gas per year,” stated MOL.
Hungary’s annual natural gas consumption is around 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year, of which roughly 1.5 bcm comes from domestic sources; the rest is imported mainly from Russia and other former Soviet republics.
