The president of the American independent oil and gas miner Frontera Resources Corporation Zaza Mamulaishvili in a news conference explained the corporation’s intentions in the Republic of Moldova and spoke about the planned investments and impact on the environment, IPN reports.

The company will be able to explore and then extract hydrocarbons on an area of 12 125 km2 in southern Moldova. It also performed works in Turkey and Azerbaijan, but now concentrates its attention on Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia.

The company started to work with the Government of Moldova five years ago, when Zaza Mamulaishvili met with the then Premier Vlad Filat. Meanwhile, she had contacts with all the Prime Ministers and ministers of economy and environment of Moldova. She had meetings in different formats with most of the politicians and decision makers to understand the context in Moldova and if there is investment potential.

Zaza Mamulaishvili said the company’s specialists in geology determined the geological structure of the Danube and Dobrogea Basin, which has a great petroleum and natural gas potential. The company will hire several hundred Moldovans, while the exploration investments are estimated at US$ 6 million. Between 80 and 100 personnel units are needed for exploration works. At the initial stage, they will bring five to ten pieces of equipment. They will involve specialists from Texas, but about 90% of the employees will be from Moldova.

The president of Frontera Resources voiced hope that the effective exploration works will start in three-four years. They are now carrying out geological studies and analyzing historical data and are looking for oil and gas deposits. The company is not interested in the exploration of shale gas and is specialized in ordinary extraction of hydrocarbons. Zaza Mamulaishvili assured they will not extract petroleum by hydraulic fracturing.

One of the environment vice presidents of Frontera Resources will come to Moldova in about a month to explain the environmental impact on the people from the areas where they intend to explore.

The business model used by the company does not envision purchases of land. The company will sign contracts with farmers who will accept to cooperate. The contracts will stipulate a payment equal to the maximum value of the agricultural production ever obtained from the rented areas.

Frontera’s fully owned subsidiary Frontera Resources International LLC was awarded a bid for exploration and production of hydrocarbons in the onshore Dobrogea Basin in southern Moldova for a 50-year period.