Offshore Law climbs up on the Romanian lawmakers' agenda

The amendments to the Offshore Law, expected to unlock the natural gas projects in Romania's Black Sea perimeter, are likely to climb up fast in the agenda of the lawmakers after President Klaus Iohannis mentioned the energy independence (besides larger defense spending) as a strategic medium-term target.

Iohannis, indeed in his speech on March 1, mentioned the nuclear and renewables sectors as elements of energy independence, but natural gas is a key transition element, and possibly the role of coal as a "resource of last resort" will be slightly reviewed.

Romanian Senate's speaker Florin Citu, who also leads the junior ruling Liberal party PNL, on March 2 expressed support for the new Offshore Law drafted by the Ministry of Energy (that his party is managing) and mentioned a 60:40 split between state and field operator, of the gains generated by the Black Sea natural gas.

Florin Citu said that "PNL supports the variant already presented by the Ministry of Energy, with 60% of the revenues going to the Romanian state, 40% to the other parties," News.ro reported. He also said that this was the starting point for further negotiations.

Black Se Oil and gas, a Carlyle investment fund company, is close to starting gas deliveries from the field it operates in Romania's Black Sea, but OMV Petrom has been more cautious with its investments in its Neptun Deep perimeter: the investment decision is going to be deferred for 2023 unless the lawmakers move fast with the Offshore Law, its management warned.

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