Black Sea Oil and Gas requires Romania to amend solidarity contribution regulations

Black Sea Oil and Gas, the company controlled by Carlyle investment group that began producing gas at its Midia offshore perimeter in mid-2022, argued that the solidarity contribution introduced by Romania to implement a recommendation of the European Commission fails to properly address the case of companies starting operations subject to the contribution during the year 2022, Economica.net reported. It also asked the Government of Romania to amend the national implementation.

The company has a solid case, and in principle, the Government should address the situation spotted by BSOG, even if the argument could have been brought into discussion by the company’s management at an earlier stage when the EC was preparing the Regulations last autumn.

Under the current provisions, BSOG would be levied a 60% supplementary contribution on its entire profit derived last year, as opposed to the profit above 120% of the average profits recorded in past years by other companies that have operated continuously.

This is the second issue identified by Romanian companies in the Regulation drafted and enforced by the European Commission last October. The first issue was spotted and creatively speculated by OMV Petrom, which managed to organise its operations such as to bypass the provisions of the Regulations – which is applicable only to companies deriving at least 75% of their revenues from the activities covered by the solidarity contribution.

The European Commission hasn’t yet responded to the Romanian Government regarding whether it could still charge the solidarity contribution to OMV Petrom, the country’s largest operator in the sectors targeted by the solidarity contribution.

(Photo source: Blackseaog.com)