Romanian PM’s advisor suggests Gazprom may control Austrian group OMV

Romanian prime minister Viorica Dancila’s economic advisor Darius Valcov said on Tuesday, August 21, that it’s not fair that only Austrian group OMV gains from the offshore law and accused president Klaus Iohannis of taking sides with the Austrian group, which he suggested may be controlled by Russia’s Gazprom. He added that the Romanian state will not accept another blackmail, local Mediafax reported. “Only the Austrian state to win every time? This happened once but it can’t happen again,” Valcov said in an online talk show, probably referring to Romanian oil company Petrom’s privatization signed in 2004 by former PSD prime minister Adrian Nastase. “The world capital market and unconfirmed information say that Gazprom may be a majority shareholder in OMV. There’s no certainty, but it is possible that Romanian gas thus gets to the hands of the Russians. A solution is to come and continue to repair these things,” Valcov went on. The former finance minister, who stepped down after a corruption investigation and was sentenced to eight years in prison by the first court, said he negotiated the taxes to be paid by the investors that run offshore gas operations in the Black Sea and proposed to them that the Romanian state gets up to 25% of the value of gas extracted whereas other countries take 40% to 50% of the revenues. He said the investors refused. He added that the Romanian state can’t control how much the companies interested in exploiting Black Sea gas actually invest in developing these operations. “For example, Exxon is based in Bahamas and we can’t check there because we have no information exchange with Bahamas,” he said. He also mentioned president Klaus Iohannis’s meeting with OMV CEO Reiner Seele in January and connected it with the president’s decision to ask the Parliament to review the offshore law and the recent negative statements of Austrian politicians related to the situation in Romania. “Yesterday, an Austrian said there are big problems in Romania. Well, there are: Romania won’t sell gas for nothing anymore!” Valcov added. OMV representatives refused to comment on Valcov’s statements or the offshore law, according to Mediafax. Both OMV and its Romanian subsidiary OMV Petrom are listed companies and their major shareholders are public. OMV holds a 51% stake in OMV Petrom, where the Romanian state also has a 20.64% stake. Meanwhile, OMV is officially controlled by the Austrian state, through a state holding that holds 31.5% of the group's shares, and the International Petroleum Company of Abu Dhabi (IPIC), with a 24.9% stake, while the remaining 43.4% are held by various investors on the Vienna Stock Exchange.