Romanian lawmakers ready to endorse new Offshore Law quickly

Florin Citu, the speaker of the Romanian Senate, assured that the new Offshore Law drafted by the Government would be endorsed quickly on Wednesday, May 11, and passed to the Chamber of Deputy quickly.

Each amendment should previously be agreed on among the members of the ruling coalition, but no such amendment was discussed yet, he added, G4media.ro reported.

The revised Offshore Law - which also covers the deep onshore deposits - was unveiled by the Government in May.

But it failed to convince Black Sea Oil and Gas (BSOG), which is close to beginning production at the Midia perimeter in the Black Sea, to abandon plans for international arbitrage related to the supplementary tax on windfall earnings provisioned by the Offshore Law.

"The new offshore law does not eliminate the tax on additional income that blocked offshore projects in the Romanian continental shelf of the Black Sea in the last four years. BSOG is of the opinion that the current project to amend the Offshore Law leaves open the possibility to continue the steps for arbitration," said last week BSOG CEO Mark Beacom.

OMV Petrom and Romgaz, the companies operating another major offshore perimeter, have not commented yet on the revised Offshore Law.

The revised form of the Law sweetens but does not eliminate the supplementary tax. At the beginning of April, BSOG notified the Government regarding an imminent procedure of arbitration against the Romanian state at the International Court of Arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris. OMV Petrom said that a final investment decision would be taken in 9-12 months after the new form of the Law is promulgated.

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