American oil company Chevron will have to pay USD 73.45 million to Romania’s National Agency for Mineral Resources (ANRM) after the cancelling of three oil concession agreements without meeting the financial obligations provided in the oil law, Romania’s Government has announced.

The International Arbitrage Court in Paris ruled in favor of the Romanian state in this dispute with Chevron.

ANRM was represented in this lawsuit by local law firm Zamfirescu Racoti & Partners.

The natural resources agency closed the three concession agreements with Chevron in March 2011. They targeted three perimeters in Dobrogea, in Eastern Romania. The concession agreements included minimum exploration requirements for those perimeters, which Chevron agreed to.

The American company notified ANRM that it backed out of the concession agreements in November 2014 but it refused to pay the value of the minimum exploration expenses included in the agreement. ANRM thus refused to issue the decision to end the concession.

In 2015, Chevron went to the Arbitrage Court in Paris asking it to ascertain that it had met its obligations towards the Romanian state.

editor@romania-insider.com