Romania destroys naval drone near offshore gas platform

Romania neutralized a maritime drone near the Neptun Deep gas platform in the Black Sea on Thursday. Officials initially reported that two separate drones had been destroyed, but it was later established that only one drone was involved throughout the entire incident, according to Defense Minister Radu Miruță and Romanian President Nicușor Dan.

The drone was spotted several hundred meters from the platform’s gas extraction operations at around 6:28 a.m. local time, reported by a commercial vessel working in the area, according to Romania’s Ministry of National Defence. Two Romanian F-16s were scrambled, and one aircraft engaged the target with its onboard cannon. The drone was hit and damaged but not destroyed, and it continued drifting in the sea.

A Romanian Coast Guard vessel then arrived in the area to verify the results of the engagement. When the crew located the damaged drone, they initially believed they had found a second device. They had not. It was the same drone that had already been struck by the F-16, still drifting after surviving the initial hit. Romanian EOD personnel subsequently destroyed it completely.

Miruță said the drone was loaded with explosives and that Ukraine had officially confirmed through a recently established direct communication channel that it did not belong to Ukrainian forces.

The drone was found within Romania’s exclusive economic zone, roughly 80 nautical miles east of Constanța, near the offshore platform where several hundred people were working at the time.

President Dan congratulated the armed forces and the F-16 pilots, crediting the Coast Guard for its speed in reporting the drone’s presence.

“A race against time, in which the top priority was protecting the lives of the people working on the platform and keeping critical infrastructure out of any potential danger,” Dan said.

“I strongly condemn the escalation of these types of irresponsible incidents on the part of the Russian Federation,” Dan said. “We remain vigilant alongside our NATO allies to defend ourselves and repel such provocations.”

Thursday’s incident follows a pattern of drone activity around the Neptun Deep project in recent weeks. On August 11, Romanian Naval Forces divers destroyed two drifting drones near the same site through controlled detonation. Vice Admiral Mihai Panait, chief of the Naval Forces Staff, identified those as Gerbera-type drones of Russian production. On August 16, an explosive ordnance disposal team recovered a drone wing roughly 83 nautical miles east of Constanța. Romanian pilots first destroyed a drone over national territory on July 24.

Neptun Deep is operated by OMV Petrom, which holds a 50 percent stake alongside Romgaz. The project is scheduled to begin production in 2027 and is expected to make Romania the European Union’s largest natural gas producer.